1989
UTH-WEST CHINA'S
T
LIKIANG
kwan
ROAD FROM
{CAPITAL OF VANSD)
Chungking
CONNECTS, WITH.
SUIFU
NINGYUAN
CHAP TUNG
BZENAN
KWEICHOW BURMA ROAD
SOUTH WEST
Kunming ... HINA
(YUNNANFU)
KWANG
KAIHWAFU
Handi
FRENCH
ANDO CHINA
M
200
Kweiyang
NEW CHINESE
FRONTIER
ROAD
KWANGSI Chenan
NNPHI!
NTU Nannin
sungchow
Haiphong-
GULE - DE
TONG KINGI
HAIRAN
the road will be even more expos- ed, the Chinese have made another road farther north,
Most of the western part of Kwangsi and of northern Tongking is a jumbled region of ancient cataclysms characterised by as tounding and fantastically-shaped limestone mountains. Over these roadless mountains, by dangerous tracks, a certain amount of traffic has always been maintained, man being the beast of burden. To-day, however, the tracks will not suf- fice; China must have real roads.
There is an old story that the Chinese once ordered a bridge from Europe, but stipulated that their own engineers should put it up. The technical problems of bridge| building were surmounted by erect- ing the bridge beside the river and then diverting the river's course so as to bring it under the bridge. The new road which they are building to the north does not join up with anything on the French side of the frontier! I will try to describe the situation. In Northern. Tongking is a little French in 1901-1910 after incredi- frontier post called Trung-Khan- ble engineering difficulties. The phu or the "Prefecture of the track climbs to over 6,000ft in less Double Felicity." From this hamlet than 40 miles and passes through a slippery red-clay track twists and 160 tunnels in about 300 miles.
twines over hills and round the Second comes the Langson route, mountains for some 15 miles, and There is a railway from Haiphong by it you reach China.
Vest China and her main lines of communication.
lan ton rick
he quay-side at g China at the ns a day, which ase to 500 tons
way
to Langson in Tongking, on the bor- No cars try to run on this path;: der of the Chinese province of you would have to be dug, hauled Kwangsi, whence a road runs to the or pushed out of holes by gangs of important function of Lungchow. coolies a dozen times. The
scenery. winds through strange and brilliant There are not many hu- man beings to be seen but every five days you meet processions of men and women, many of
them
Most of the heavy traffic lorries and trucks and some other material the coast to
moves up by road from the frontier at this spot. One Sunday morning in
that so much March
I counted 70 American staggering or stumbling along with narrow-gauge, trucks, mostly Chevrolets and Mat- heavy burdens dangling from their structed by the fords,' on or near the Chinese
border:
shoulder-poles.. You somehow get Langson has become fashionable. island crowned by an old Chinese round a particularly abrupt inland Its gambling saloons rival in pic- fort towering 1,000 feet above you turesqueness those of Macao. The and, suddenly, you sordid little town, in strikingly broad road starting from the slush great beautiful surroundings of curious- ly-shaped limestone. "islands" ris-
you stand in: it is China's new ing from a sea of bright green
north road. ricefield, is crammed full.
yclists are
Six Days
», taken at
ating sand.
•
дее 2
Beside the road is a hastily-put- EXPOSED TO AIR RAIDS together village of bamboo huts American missionaries share and mud hovels. It is the Chinese rooms with German bagmen. If frontier post. of Yahu, the terminus you ask where the window is in of the new highway which has been your bedroom you are told to leave built, through unsurveyed country the door open. Chinese with in a little over six months. American accents, Germans with The road is about 35 feet wide English accents, sing-song girls and although not yet metalled on from Shanghai who are curiously all its length it is well laid. It interested in politics, wild men links up the French border, through from the mountains and French the town of Chenan, with Poseh on officers rub shoulders in the streets. the Yukiang, whence both the im- There is a good deal of mysterious portant towns Nanning to the south- whispering in corners, scribbling east and Kunming to the north-west on paper pads, nodding,.-
can be comparatively easily reached.
As the road from Langson to The only thing now needful is a Lungchow is rather exposed to road on the French side to connect Japanese air raids and the railway the new highway with the excellent which is being completed alongside roads of Tongking.
By George McManus
MCMANUS
FOR GOODNESS SAKES: GEORGE FOLKS-SEND IN A NAME FOR TH LITTLE RASCAL, HE'S GITTİNA WOOSY LISTENIN' TO ALL THE NAMES THE ARE CALLING HIM
OFFERS
AN ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR THE
NAME-
ALARM AT THE WHITE MAN
When we reached the road the Chinese produced, apparently from nowhere, three bottles of Pol Roger champagne, a bucket of ice and a tin of English biscuits and suggest ed a drive. We were the first two white men ever to set foot on the road, for it has been surveyed, designed and constructed entirely by the Chinese. Not many for
can ever have visited this wilderness, since, in some the natives, alarmed at ВО put their hands when they beheld or bowed to
definite results of the
China
of someth
of
age 15
Summer
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From $1.95 to $4,95
AERTEX” SPORT SHIRTS
From $4.25 to $.785
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Socks, Fancy
Plaín, American Make
Sale Price from 95 cts. pr.
"Morley" Art Silk Socks
Sale Price $1.25 pr.
"Nagatco" Plain Lisle Socks, British
Make
Sale Price $1.50-pr.
"Aertex" White Pure Wool Socks
Sale Price $2.25 pr.
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SANG FAT
CO., LTD.
ICE CUBES
NOW AVAILABLE
THEY ARE SAFE, PURE, HARD FROZEN CRYSTAL CLEAR AND DO NOT GIVE BEVERAGES
“OFF TASTE...
IN BAGS OF 4 DOZ.
25
CENTS
PER BAG.
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PURE FOOD SPECIALISTS.
many respects the richest part the country. The south- the west, the old "colonial! as it has been called, "enormous, and
If China can maintain, hear
to her
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