The revolution and the argument over the nationalization of railways of course delayed the great Gorge Railway which runs from Ichang to Wan Hsien on the Yangtze, thus surmounting the almost impassable rapids of the gorges, which heretofore have split populous Szechuen province from Hupeh. It would be hard to say how many books have been written about these difficult rapids and the sublime scenery. The most notable are by Archibald Little, the trade pioneer of the Yangtze, and then there are interesting works by Dingle, Geil, Mrs. Kemp, Mr. Bird, Mr. Blakiston, Mr. Hart and Mrs. Bishop. The road could not possibly parallel the river along the parapets of the gorges. It breaks inland through great tunnels, some 6,000 feet long. This gorge railway was the most necessary in the whole world; it should have been the first begun in China. When it is running, however, the finest scenery in the world will be shut out from the wondering eyes of man, as the famous gorge boatmen and trackers will give up their work, and, as it is, many of them have been killed in the recent war of the revolution, Szechuen and Hupeh provinces being the first to recruit armies. From Wan Hsien railways will go across country to Chingtu, and up the Yangtze to Chungking, thus linking the great west with India, French China and the populous eastern and northern provinces.
General Kuroki’s military railway from Antung to Mukden has now been turned into a standard-gage road, and a bridge has been thrown across the Yalu River (famous for its great naval engagement) to Wiju. It is now possible to take a sleeping-car from Tokio to Shinonoseki, cross the strait by ferry, take another sleeper at Fusan, and go all the way through Mukden to Kuang Chang Tsu, connecting there with the Russian line for Moscow and St. Petersburg. For fast service, however, the Russians are able to favor the all-Russian line to Vladivostok, whence steamers can be taken for Hakodate, etc. Passengers from Shanghai can take two routes, one by steamer to Dalny, and thence via the South Manchurian (Japanese) railway, or via Tientsin, Newchang, etc. (Chinese railways). The Korean-Yalu route, however, is infinitely the more scenic. Most of the bridges of this route were brought from America.
The German railway of 271 miles in Shangtung province shows the effects of the iron hand in paying small wages, the working expenses in 1910 being only thirty-five per cent. of the gross earnings. The gross earnings were $8,000 a mile. In a bare country, where mining is undeveloped, the average receipts were only seventy-one cents per passenger mile, and ninety cents per ton mile. Over 90 per cent. of the traffic is third class. The average mixed trainload is 150 tons of freight and sixty passengers. The famous beans, straw braid, grain and petroleum predominated in the traffic, but in 1912 coal was beginning to be a growing factor. The German railway in Shangtung province has set the example of planting trees. It was copied by the Pennsylvania railway. Nearly all the railways of China are copying the reforestation methods.
At Tongshan, eighty miles northeast of Tientsin, are the modern shops, engineering college and town of the national railways of North China. Here the first Chinese locomotive, the “Rocket”, was built in stealth by the British mechanical, railway and mining engineer, Mr. C. W. Kinder, who has done so much for the railways and mines of North China. The college turns out railway engineers, and some of the instructors are American, like Mr. F. A. Foster. Other lecturers are British, like Mr. Kinder and Mr. Pope.
Railway cars can now be built in the Tongshan shops, the Hanyang works, the Shanghai works and the Kowloon (Hongkong) works, as well as at Dalny. The Tongshan works can and have built locomotives.
In 1910 the Department of Communications established at Peking a railway school. Three hundred of the six hundred students were under twenty-five years of age. There were eight foreign and thirty-five foreign-trained Chinese teachers. The course was three years. English, mainly, and French, German and Chinese were taught. There is no military drill, and the curriculum includes history, economics, railway bookkeeping and law, engineering, management of traffic, shops and stations, physics, chemistry, drawing, mathematics, geography, etc.
Electric tramways have been established at Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Canton and the Manchurian cities, the example having been taken from Hongkong’s tramway, built in 1905. Recent photographs show the remarkable change in the bunds and roads of the treaty ports, where the automobile, electric car, rickshaw, wheelbarrow, chair and litter all have their fight for the passenger and his nimble coin.
On new lines it is necessary to use blue instead of white glass in the coaches, as the coolies in their excitement over the scenery forget and put their heads through the white glass, to which they are not accustomed.
The old system of transportation has not altogether departed, and even if it had, its memory would linger long. Neither the Peking cart, nor the mule litter of Shansi, in which one rides between two tandem mules, is on springs. They are padded so that the passenger, who is not made of rubber, may be somewhat protected. If the conveyances were not padded, only a man dressed up for American football could survive the jolting. These are the vehicles in which dignified (on other occasions) ambassadors have ridden at Peking in all the years since foreigners were granted the legation privileges.