CO129-321 - Public Offices & Others - 1903 — Page 249

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is a moral for the Mandarins in the fact that goods destined for consumption in China will always endeavour to approach their markets, as far as possible, by foreign routes.

After leaving Wu Ting, we turned north-west up a narrow valley and into some very mountainous country, inhabited chiefly by Lolos, but with some well-watered, and therefore well-peopled, valleys; on the second day from Wu Ting, we passed the backbone of the range which forms the west limit of the basin of the An Ning River, Shih T'a La (8,000 feet), and descended through bare imposing mountain scenery to the ridge of Hao Chi Pa, where we camped with no water nearer than 700 feet below us. The country resembles the Wa hills, on the Burmah frontier.

From Hao Chi Pa there is an easy descent down to the valley of Yuan Meng Hsien, but the city having been partially destroyed by the rebels, the officials' residence has been moved further down the valley to Ma Kai, a busy market of 400 houses, where there is a considerable traffic. The valley is well cultivated down to the Yang-tsze, which is 25 miles distant on the Chien Chang road. This valley is almost tropical, the height of Ma Kai being only 4,000 feet; sugar is grown in considerable quantities, and the whole look of the place is Szechuanese rather than Yunnanese. Leaving Ma Kai, we entered the hills to the west of the valley, and after a long march across the river whose head waters flow sluggishly across the plain of Chu Hsiung on the main Burmah road, and over a waterless range (5,900 feet), we descended into the narrow and poor valley of Miao Men (li-kin station and 150 houses in the principal village), and then passed by a defile into a narrow, but fertile, valley, with a number of Chinese villages. Here we put up at the Lung Ch'uan Temple ("dragon spring"), which has been restored by Colonel Li, formerly Commandant of the Lin An brigade in South Yünnan, who has beautified his ancestral home with the spoils, if not of war, at least of peace. Hence a climb over another main north and south range (7,200 feet) brought us down to the valley and busy city of Ta Yao, which contains about 5,000 inhabitants and is a busy market. It is one of the places which the opening of the Teng Yueh customs has brought within the sphere of Burmah trade influence. Much of the through traffic between West Yünnan and Szechuan passes this way, and there is a main road from Ta Yao to Jen Ho Kai, an important market and li-kin station near the Yang-taze, whence trade goes across to the Chien Chang Valley. Silk, ponies, tobacco, sugar, and Szechuan cotton cloth are the chief imports into Yunnan by this route.

Three-quarters of the country hitherto traversed had been mountainous; the hills are mainly populated by Lolos, who form the majority of the crowd at the Ta Yao market. The Chinese have, however, already occupied most of the good valley lands, and will, no doubt, in time gradually extinguish the Lolos. The only product of the country besides mules and ponies which is worth mentioning is hemp, which the Lolos use for their coarse garments. It sells raw for 50 cash a catty (1 lb.) on the market at Ta Yao, and some of it finds its way to Teng Yueh.

From Ta Yao as a centre, a number of cultivated valleys penetrate in various directions into the surrounding hills. Following one of these for 12 miles we crossed another low range running north and south, and looked down into the valley of Pei Yen Tsing ("white salt wells"), and across it on to vast confused mountain masses.

We camped 3 miles short of the wells; a sharp white frost fell in the night and nearly every other night for the rest of our journey.

Pei Yen Tsing is a filthy town of about 6,000 inhabitants, consisting of one long street in a close gorge, where brine wells have been bored. The output of salt is about 2,000 catties per day, and there is an official of the Salt Department in charge. The brine is brought up in leather buckets, let down by hand and then boiled in large open pans over charcoal fires.

Immediately after leaving Pei Yen Tsing in a westerly direction, an abrupt and tiring ascent over a main range has to be made; from the summit of the Kuan Yin Miao pass the traveller descends through wild country to the K'ung Hsien Bridge by the banks of the K'ung Hsien River. This is a mountain stream which flows down to the Yang-tsze, and we ascended it for 19 miles through a magnificent defile, densely wooded, and with the side valleys finely terraced with rice-fields. The road from Pei Yen Tsing up over the mountains and along this gorge was once paved, and as there are clearly not enough inhabitants in the vicinity to have undertaken such a work, it seems, probably, that this was once a main trade route between Ta Li and Szechuan.

Leaving this romantic valley, we ascended to the open plateau of Mi Tien, whence a level road to the south-west leads in two days to Yunnan Hsien on the Burmah high road, while another road to the north-west leads, through a defile in the hills, past the fertile valley of Chiao Ting, and so out on to the wide plain of Pin Chuan, which is the most important rift in the mountains between Ta Li and Yunnan-fu. This plain is about 3 miles long and 14 miles to 3 miles broad.

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It debouches on to the Yang-tsze at the important market of Chin Chiang Kai, one long day's march from Pin Chuan city; thence the high road leads to Yung Peh. Of recent years a considerable and lucrative trade has sprung up between West Yunnan and the trans-Yang-tsze Yung Peh district, specially those parts of it which are near the Yang-tsze and to the Szechuan border. The people of West Yunnan is supplied with sugar from this source, and also with tobacco; paper, oranges, and Shasi cloth are other objects of commerce, while opium, cotton, and gams move east in return across the Yang-tsze.

The south of the Pin Chuan Valley is divided by an easy col (7,250 feet) from the extensive plain of Yunnan Hsien, and this again is divided by one range from the valleys of Mi Tao and Meng Hua, which brings us near the Mekong River; the railway engineer who had got his alignment over on to the east bank of the Mekong would have an easy task to reach the Yang-tsze north of Pin Chuan.

A great part of the Pin Chuan Valley is barren, owing to an insufficient supply of water; here, as in so many parts of Yunnan, scientific irrigation would work wonders. The city of Pin Chuan contains only one business street and a number of ancestral temples, and not more than 4,000 inhabitants, but there are two busy little markets in the plain, at Niu Kai, 7 miles north of the city, and at Pin Chi, 6 miles to the south-west. This valley, together with Yung Peh, ought now to get its foreign supplies wholly from Teng Yueh.

Indian yarns of the coarser counts are likely to remain for many years the staple Note on cotton imports of Teng Yueh. I therefore append some notes on the cotton trade generally trade in Yünnan:

(a.) Raw cotton is imported almost solely for the purpose of wadding garments and quilts.

(b) The imports of Manchester goods are small, the annual value being from 55,000 to 100,000. The well-to-do inhabitants of the towns are Manchester's chief customers, and they do not form a large class in Yünnan, where there is only one town (the capital) of over 60,000 inhabitants, and only three others (Yung Chang, Chao Tong, and Chù Tsing) of over 20,000.

There is, however, a chance of extending the foreign piece-goods trade in the Yung Chang and Teng Yueh Valleys, where many people have travelled in Burmah, and have a taste for foreign cloth, and in many parts of Yunnan I think American drills may find favour.

(c.) The Shasi cloth, so well known along the Yang-tsze, comes into Yünnan from Szechuan by Lao Wa Tan; it is still the principal clothing of the people in the Chao Tong district, but is losing ground almost everywhere on account of its price.

(d.) All other cottons have in the last twelve years rapidly yielded in public favour before "yang sha pu," or cloth locally woven from imported yarns. The great centre of this industry is the Hsin Hsing Valley, three days south of Yunnan-fu. This valley and the country near it take some 40,000 piculs yearly, and the manual dexterity of the weavers has attained so high a standard that Hsin Hsing cloth is distributed all over the province, especially in the Ta Li district; the reason for the establishment of this industry at Hsin Hsing is that the population is dense and is near a foreign custom-house, so that goods can be brought in cheaply under transit pass from Mengtse.

Had we been wise in time, Teng Yuch would have been an open port ten years ago, and with the cheap and regular Tariff of the Imperial Customs, the weaving industry would certainly have established itself in the Yung Chang or Teng Yueh Valleys. The disadvantage to us of its being at Hsin Hsing is that there Japanese and Tonkin yarns can compete with Bombay on favourable terms, while near Teng Yueh the yarn would all be Indian.

Yunnan-fu takes about 15,000, and Chủ Tsing, in East Yunnan, about 12,000 piculs of yarn annually; these, however, are consumed locally, and there is no export of cloth to speak of from these districts.

I was glad to observe that attempts are now being made to start weaving all over West Yunnan, notably at Yung Chang and Hoching Chou, and even that yarns can now go from Teng Yueh into South-west Szechuan and return thence to Yung Peh in the form of woven cloth.

Fashions, of course, vary, and there are many districts which could be supplied more cheaply from Teng Yueh which at present prefer Shasi or Hsin Hsing goods, and from the point of view of wholesale manufacture for export to other districts, as apart from merely supplying local demand by local domestic industry, merchants complain that trade and mule...