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Miao Wei is chiefly Chinese, and from this point to Fei Lung Bridge, 5 miles, there is a strip of open country along the west bank, and the road leads past Chinese hamlets, clumps of bamboos and extensive padi-fields, until a turn in the river disclosed the Flying Dragon ("Fei Lung") Bridge, slung like the thread of a spider's web across the river.
There is a small market of twenty shops here, at the west end of the bridge, and a considerable traffic of caravans for the districts to the north of Teng Yueh, laden with salt and sugar.
Besides the salt wells of Lashi and some smaller brine wells at Pei Ti Ping, there are near the east bank of the Mekong in the Yün Tung Sub-Prefecture no less than nine places where salt is won. From these districts the whole of North-West Yunnan is supplied.
The Mekong from its exit from Tibet (approximate latitude 28° north) down to the great suspension bridge on the Burma-Ta Li road (latitude 25° 17′ north) is remarkable for the straightness of its course, for the uniformity of its breadth, for the absence of any considerable tributaries, and, above all, for the continuous and regular ranges of lofty mountains which close it in on both sides. It is like a huge conduit-pipe, down which the waters of Tibet are poured into the Southern Ocean.
In winter the water is of a rich blue and very cold. At my camp at Lama Ti the surface temperature was 39° Fahrenheit. I saw no boats on the Upper Mekong save the ferry at Lama Ti, but there are long reaches which a skilful canoist could safely negotiate. If the Mekong and Salwen in Yünnan flowed through broad valleys instead of close gorges, and if their navigability had been in proportion to their volume and length, how entirely different might have been the history of Asia!
The following approximate figures give some idea of the course of the Upper Mekong:-
Place Latitude Height Breadth Near Tseku 28° 0' N. 6,100 Feet ❤ Yards Ying Pan Kai 26° 30' N. 5,200 Feet 70 Yards Fei Lung Bridge 25° 45' N. 4,500 Feet 70 Yards Great Suspension Bridge 25° 17' N. 4,300 Feet 60-80 YardsFrom Fei Lung Bridge we continued down the west bank, passing a series of fertile terraces to the considerable village of Chiu Chou, which, like all the residences of local Chiefs in this country, is built on a ridge in the valley. Chiu Chou is the seat of the eldest of the Tuan brothers, who are of sufficient importance in this part of the world to merit some account. According to my information, their ancestor was a Chinese adventurer, who established his authority between the Salwen and the Mekong in the early days of the present dynasty, and was afterwards recognized as a hereditary Tu ssu, or Chief, by the Yunnan Government. The family has now split up into five branches, and the patrimony is thus divided; the head of the eldest branch is at Chiu Chou, on the Mekong; the second at Luku, on the east bank of the Salwen; the third at Lao Wu, in the mountains west of Piao Tsuen, between the Salwen and the Mekong; the fourth at Mao-tsao, on the west bank of the Salwen, near Luku; and the fifth at Tengkeng, on the west bank of the Salwen, rather south of Luku. None of these places are more than large villages, and, excepting Lao Wu, which is in the hills, these Chiefs only have a small strip of territory between mountain and river. The first three are subject to the Ta Li Prefect, and the last two to Yung Chang Prefect.
At Chiu Chou we said good-bye to the Mekong, and turning west commenced the ascent of the great range on the west bank. The way at first led up a side valley carefully terraced and narrowing as we advanced. The last village is Ma Chia Ping (10 miles, 6,600 feet), and then commenced a very trying ascent through primeval forest by a very narrow and dilapidated road. In two hours' scramble we only advanced 3 miles, when we reached the wattle hut of Tou Tao Shou, where we found a petty military officer, and just room to pitch a tent on the top of a ridge in the forest. The only water was 500 feet below us, and there was no feed for the mules; to complete our discomfort a storm of sleet came on, and lasted most of the night.
The next morning we reached the top of the pass after a climb of two hours through dense forest and over frozen snow. At the summit there is a small plateau covered with rhododendrons and bamboo scrub. From here the slopes which we had ascended appeared impassibly steep, and the east side of the crest of the range bristles with jagged precipices. But on the west slope our descent was far easier, leading gradually down a broad spur covered with dense bamboo brake, and lower down with pine forests. At 9,500 feet we passed another small guard-house, and then travelled down through bracken and grass, shooting pheasants as we went till we reached the open plain of Tsao Chiang. The range of mountains on the west bank of the Salwen—to all appearances not a whit less formidable than that which we had just crossed—had been in full view during the descent.
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The plain of Tsao Chiang is shaped roughly like a pear, with the stalk to the north, and is about 6 miles long, surrounded by lofty mountains. There is some good pasture here, and mules constitute the chief source of wealth of the mixed population of Chinese immigrants and Minchia natives, who trade with Yung Chang and Teng Yueh. There is also in this valley a considerable iron industry; the ore is brought from the hills 15 miles to the south, and made into agricultural implements and salt pans. In the chief village, which contains about 3,000 inhabitants, and is built on a ridge in the middle of the plain, there is a busy market. There was formerly a native Minchia Chief here, but he has been suppressed, and the place is now under the ordinary jurisdiction of Yün Lung. The great range which we had crossed is, farther north, the water-parting between the Mekong and the Salwen, but, to our surprise, we found that it is not so at the point where we crossed it, as the stream which waters the Tsao Chiang plain flows into the Mekong. The hills directly to the north of the Tsao Chiang plain are inhabited by Lisaw, who are not under control by the Chinese Government.
Leaving the Tsao Chiang Valley in a south-west direction, we entered the broken hilly country which reaches to the Salwen and camped on the top of a slope near a Minchia village, whence an extensive view of the surrounding country showed that the Salwen-Mekong water-parting is at this point an irregular and split-up range which makes a loop westward towards the Salwen, and quite lacks that imposing dignity and compactness which is a distinguishing feature of the range on the west bank of the Mekong. We passed into the Salwen system and the jurisdiction of Yung Chang the next day by an easy col 7,800 feet, and from the hamlet of Shui Ching looked down into the depths of a cavernous gorge, which runs due west down to the Salwen. On descending to the level of this gorge by a steep path, we found ourselves at the village of Sun Chu and in an almost tropical climate. The direct road down the gorge to the Salwen was barely passable for pedestrians, and quite impossible for mules, so we had to make a detour to the south up a side valley richly cultivated by the peasants of Sun Chu, and then again west into the mountains, where we camped at the picturesque market and hamlet of Wa Ma.
Here everybody spoke Chinese, though there is clearly a large admixture of Shan blood, and we had passed beyond the land of the Minchia. Wa Ma is situated amid the limestone peaks which overhang the east bank of the Salwen; deer, which are hunted for their meat, and bears, which are hunted for their paws, are said to abound. There is a track leading from Wa Ma to Yung Chang in three days.
From Wa Ma we wound our way in a north-west direction through mountain valleys, well wooded and with frequent patches of cultivation, until we reached a height of 7,300 feet, and descended to the Shan hamlet of San Kung Wa.
Here the hills open and disclose a broad funnel-like defile, the bottom of which was densely clad with rich green vegetation, running straight down to the Salwen. Descending sharply to the little stream which waters the defile, we found the road practicable for mules, and passing the picturesque but dirty hamlet of La Pa (Shan), we approached the great river. The defile opened out and the hills on both sides became less abrupt until we debouched into the valley of the Salwen at the fever-stricken village of Meng Ku. There is here an alluvial valley 1 mile broad by the river bank, but only a small proportion of it is cultivated, while the rest is covered with rank grass. We halted by the river bank under a sun which made us regret the snows which we had left a few days before. The altitude of the river here is but 2,900 feet, while its breadth is 100 yards.
As compared with the Mekong at this latitude, the Salwen is a wider and more winding river. It is, as a rule, shallower, and though, like the Mekong, it is enclosed in a gorge, the country on both banks is more varied and open and there is more room for cultivation. Of course, the most remarkable point about the Salwen is the extraordinarily low altitude of its bed. The mountains on both banks rise to over 7,000 feet above it.
We crossed the Meng Ku ferry in a boat, which took our mules as well as ourselves, and proceeding north up the west bank to the padi-fields, and market of Man Ying. We camped at the foot of the mountains, which are here clad with dense semi-tropical jungle.
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Miao Wei is chiefly Chinese, and from this point to Fei Lung Bridge, 5 miles, there is a strip of open country along the west bank, and the road leads past Chinese hamlets, clumps of bamboos and extensive padi-fields, until a turn in the river disclosed the Flying Dragon ("Fei Lung") Bridge, slung like the thread of a spider's web across the river.
There is a small market of twenty shops here, at the west end of the bridge, and a considerable traffic of caravans for the districts to the north of Teng Yueh, laden w salt and sugar.
Besides the salt wells of Lashi and some smaller brine wells at Pei Ti Ping, there are near the east bank of the Mekong in the Yün Tung Sub-Prefecture no less than nine places where salt is won. From these districts the whole of North-West Yunnan is supplied.
The Mekong from its exit from Thibet (approximate latitude 28° north) down to the great suspension bridge on the Burmah-Ta Li road (latitude 25° 17′ north) is remarkable for the straightness of its course, for the uniformity of its breadth, for the absence of any considerable tributaries, and, above all, for the continuous and regular ranges of lofty mountains which close it in on both sides. It is like a huge conduit-pipe, down which the waters of Thibet are poured into the Southern Ocean.
In winter the water is of a rich blue and very cold. At my camp at Lama Ti the surface temperature was 39° Fahrenheit. I saw no boats on the Upper Mekong save the ferry at Lama Ti, but there are long reaches which a skilful canoist could safely negotiate. If the Mekong and Salwen in Yünnan flowed through broad valleys instead of close gorges, and if their navigability had been in proportion to their volume and length, how entirely different might have been the history of Asia!
The following approximate figures give some idea of the course of the Upper Mekong:-
Near Tseku..
Ying Pan Kai
Fei Lung Bridge
Place.
Great Suspension Bridge
::::
Latitude.
Height.
Breadth,
❤
Feet.
28
0 N.
6,100
Yards. [?]
26 30 N.
5,200
70
25 45 N.
4,500
70
25 17 N.
4,300
60-80
From Fei Lung Bridge we continued down the west bank, passing a series of fertile terraces to the considerable village of Chiu Chou, which, like all the residences of local Chiefs in this country, is built on a ridge in the valley. Chiu Chou is the seat of the eldest of the Tuan brothers, who are of sufficient importance in this part of the world to merit some account. According to my information, their ancestor was a Chinese adven- turer, who established his authority between the Salwen and the Mekong in the early days of the present dynasty, and was afterwards recognized as a hereditary Tu ssu, or Chief, by the Yunnan Government. The family has now split up into five branches, and the patrimony is thus divided; the head of the eldest branch is at Chin Chou, on the Mekong; the second at Luku, on the cast bank of the Salwen; the third at Lao Wu, in the mountains west of Piao Tsuen, between the Salwen and the Mekong; the fourth at Mao- tsao, on the west bank of the Salwen, near Luku; and the fifth at Tengkeng, on the west bank of the Salwen, rather south of Luku. None of these places are more than large villages, and, excepting Lao Wu, which is in the hills, these Chiefs only have a sinall strip of territory between mountain and river. The first three are subject to the Ta Li Prefect, and the last two to Yung Chang Prefect.
At Chiu Chou we said good-bye to the Mekong, and turning west commenced the ascent of the great range on the west bank. The way at first led up a side valley care- fully terraced and narrowing as we advanced. The last village is Ma Chia Ping (10 miles 6,600 feet), and then commenced a very trying ascent through primeval forest by a very narrow and dilapidated road. In two hours' scramble we only advanced
3 miles, when we reached the wattle hut of Tou Tao Shou, where we found a petty military officer, and just room to pitch a tent on the top of a ridge in the forest. The only water was 500 feet below us, and there was no feed for the mules; to complete our discomfort a storm of sleet came on, and lasted most of the night.
The next morning we reached the top of the pass after a climb of two hours through dense forest and over frozen snow. At the sumuiit there is a small plateau covered with rhododendrons and bamboo scrub. From here the slopes which we had ascended appeared impassibly steep, and the east side of the crest of the range bristles with
19
jagged precipices. But on the west slope our descent was far easier, leading gradually down a broad spur covered with dense bamboo brake, and lower down with pine forests. At 9,500 feet we passed another small guard-house, and then travelled down through bracken and grass, shooting pheasants as we went till we reached the open plain of Tsao Chiang. The range of mountains on the west bank of the Salwen-to all appearances not a whit less formidable than that which we had just crossed-had been in full view
ring the descent.
The plain of Tsao Chiang is shaped roughly like a pear, with the stalk to the north, and is about 6 miles long, surrounded by lofty mountains. There is some good pasture here, and mules constitute the chief source of wealth of the mixed popula- tion of Chinese immigrants and Minchia natives, who trade with Yung Chang and Teng Yueh. There is also in this valley a considerable iron industry; the ore is brought from the hills 15 miles to the south, and made into agricultural implements and salt pans. In the chief village, which contains about 3,000 inhabitants, and is built on a ridge in the middle of the plain, there is a busy market. There was formerly a native Minchia Chief here, but he has been suppressed, and the place is now under the ordinary juris. diction of Yün Lung. The great range which we had crossed is, farther north, the water-parting between the Mekong and the Salwen, but, to our surprise, we found that it is not so at the point where we crossed it, as the stream which waters the Tsao Chiang plain flows into the Mekong. The hills directly to the north of the Tsao Chiang plain are inhabited by Lisaw, who are not under control by the Chinese Government.
Leaving the Tsao Chiang Valley in a south-west direction, we entered the broken Lan Pan Teng. hilly country which reaches to the Salwen and camped on the top of a slope near a Minchia village, whence an extensive view of the surrounding country showed that the Salwen- Mekong water-parting is at this point an irregular and split-up range which makes a loop westward towards the Salwen, and quite lacks that imposing dignity and compactness which is a distinguishing feature of the range on the west bank of the Mekong. We passed into the Salwen system and the jurisdiction of Yung Chang the next day by an easy col 7,800 feet, and from the hamlet of Shui Ching looked down into the depths of a cavernous gorge, which runs due west down to the Salwen. On descending to the level of this gorge by a steep path, we found ourselves at the village of Sun Chu and in an almost tropical climate. The direct road down the gorge to the Salwen was barely passable for pedestrians, and quite impossible for mules, so we had to make a detour to the south up a side valley richly cultivated by the peasants of Sun Chu, and then again west into the mountains, where we camped at the picturesque market and hamlet of Wa Ma.
Here everybody spoke Chinese, though there is clearly a large admixture of Shan blood, and we had passed beyond the land of the Minchia. Wa Ma is situated amid the limestone peaks which overhang the east bank of the Salwen; deer, which are hunted for their meat, and bears, which are hunted for their paws, are said to abound. There is a track leading from Wa Ma to Yung Chang in three days.
From Wa Ma we wound our way in a north-west direction through mountain valleys, well wooded and with frequent patches of cultivation, until we reached a height of 7,300 feet, and descended to the Shan bamlet of San Kung Wa.
Here the hills open and disclose a broad funuel-like defile, the bottom of which was densely clad with rich green vegetation, running straight down to the Salwen. Descending sharply to the little stream which waters the defile, we found the road practicable for mules, and passing the picturesque but dirty hamlet of La Pa (Shan), we approached the great river. The defile opened out and the hills on both sides became less abrupt until we debouched into the valley of the Salwen at the fever-stricken village of Meng Ku. There is here an alluvial valley 1 mile broad by the river bank, but only a small proportion of it is cultivated, while the rest is covered with rank grass. We halted by the river bank under a sun which made as regret the snows which we had left a few days before. The altitude of the river here is but 2,900 feet, while its breadth is 100 yards.
As compared with the Mekong at this latitude, the Salwen is a wider and more winding river.
It is, as a rule, shallower, and though, like the Mekong, it is inclosed in a gorge, the country on both banks is more varied and open and there is more room for cultivation. Of course, the most remarkable point about the Salwen is the extraordinarily jow altitude of its bed. The mountains on both banks rise to over 7,000 feet above it."
We crossed the Meng Ku ferry in a boat, which took our mules as well as ourselves, and proceeding north up the west bank to the padi-fields, and market of Man Ying. We camped at the foot of the mountains, which are here clad with dense semi-tropical jungle.
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