The International Development of China

by Yat-sen Sun

In my project of regulating the Yangtze Estuary I have two aims, namely, to secure a deep channel to the open sea and to save as much silt as possible for the purpose of reclamation of land. The Middle Channel provides three ready receptacles for the deposit of the silt for the formation of new land: the Haimen, the Tsungming, and the Tungsha Banks. Besides these banks there are many hundreds of square miles of shallow bottom which in the course of ten or twenty years will also form land. As remuneration is our first principle we must consider it in every step of our progress. The reclamation of about a thousand square miles of land even in forty not to say twenty years would be ample profit. At the lowest estimate the reclaimed land would be worth twenty dollars per mow. If after ten years five hundred square miles would be ready for cultivation purposes then we would gain a profit of 38,000,000 dollars. Whereas to make an approach by the South Channel the receptacle ground will be on one side only, that is, the Tungsha Banks, while on the right of the approach is the deep Hangchow Bay which would take hundreds of years to fill up, and in the meanwhile half of the silt would be wasted. To Shanghai as a seaport the silt is a curse but to the shallow banks the silt would be a blessing.

Since it is a profitable undertaking to reclaim the above mentioned banks and the neighboring shallows, we can quite well afford to build a double stone wall from the shore end of the Yangtze right out into the deep sea far beyond Shaweishan Island which is a distance of about forty miles. A stone wall from one fathom to five fathoms in height at low-water level would likely not exceed an average cost of two hundred thousand dollars a mile as cheap stone can easily be obtained from the granite islands nearby, in the Chusan Archipelago. A wall of forty miles on each side that is eighty miles in all will cost sixteen million dollars or thereabouts. And considering that 200 or 300 square miles of Haimen, Tsungming, and the Tungsha banks could be converted into arable land within a short time, the expense of building the wall is well justified. Furthermore, the construction of this wall means that there will be a safe and permanent approach for a world port in Shanghai as well as a deep outlet for the Yangtze. See Map V.

The regulating wall on the right side should be built from the junction of the Whangpoo by prolongation of its right jetty describing a gentle curve into the depths of the South Channel and turning toward the opposite side and cutting through the Blockhouse Island into the Middle Channel, then running eastward right into the five-fathom line southeast of Shaweishan Island. The left wall would be a continuation from that of Tsungming at Tsungpaosha Island parallel with the right wall by a distance of about two miles. This wall should curve to a point at or near Drinkwater Point at Tsungming Island, then project into the five-fathom line at the open sea passing by just at the south side of the Shaweishan Island. A glance at the map here attached would be sufficient to show how the future outlet of the Yangtze as well as the future approach of Shanghai should be. The two regulating submerged walls on both sides would be as high as low-water level so as to give a free passage of the water over the top at flood tide. This will serve the purpose of carrying back the silt from the sea when the tide comes in, thus to reclaim the shallow spaces inclosed behind the walls on both sides of the river more quickly than otherwise. The new channel formed by these two parallel walls would likely be deeper than the present South Channel outside the Whangpoo, which is forty to fifty feet deep because the velocity of the current will be greater than the present one, due to the concentration of three channels into one. Furthermore, the depth would be more uniform and stable than at present. Although the regulating walls end at the five-fathom line, the momentum of the current would continue beyond that point, and so would cut into the deep water outside. This would serve the double purpose of draining the Yangtze Estuary as well as keeping open the approach to Shanghai.

b. From Whangpoo Junction to Kiangyin

This part of the channel of the Yangtze River is most irregular and changeable. The widest part is over ten miles while the Kiangyin Narrow is only but three-quarters of a mile. The depth of the channel at the open part is from five to ten fathoms while that of Kiangyin Narrow is twenty fathoms. Judging by the depth of the water at this point a width of one and a half miles must be provided for the channel in order to slow down the current and to give a uniform velocity right along the river. So the two-mile wide channel at Whangpoo Junction has to be tabulated into one mile and a half at Kiangyin. See Map VI.

The north or left embankment commencing at Tsungpao Sha continues with the sea wall and makes a convex curve up to Tsungming Island at a point about six miles northwest from Tsungming city. Then it follows along the shore of Tsungming right up to Mason Point and transversing across the north channel parallel to the north shore at a distance of three or four miles right up to Kinshan Point, thence it cuts across the deep channel which was formed in recent years and curves southwestward to join the shore northeast of Tsingkiang and follows the shore line for a distance of about seven or eight miles, then cuts into the land side to give this part of the river a width of one and a half miles from the fort at the Kiangyin side. This embankment from Tsungpao Sha to Tsingkiang Point opposite Kiangyin fort is about one hundred miles in length.

South of Tsungming Island a part of this embankment and a part of the wall that projects into the sea together inclose a shallow space of about 160 square miles good for reclamation purposes. The other part of the embankment, which runs from Mason Point at the head of Tsungming Island to Tsingkiang shore, incloses another space of about 130 square miles.

The right embankment starts at the end of the left jetty of Whangpoo Junction and, skirting along the Paoshan shore and passing the Blonde Shoal into the deep, crosses the Confucius Channel on into Actaon Shoal and follows the right side of Harvey Channel on to Plover Point. Then it turns northwest across the deep channel into Langshan Flats, thence recrosses the deep channel at Langshan crossing into Johnson Flats, then joins the Pitman King Island, and thence skirts along the shore right into the foot of the hills at Kiangyin forts. This embankment incloses two shallow spaces: one above and the other below Plover Point, together about 160 square miles. Alongside of both of these embankments there are shallow spaces amounting to about 450 square miles, a great part of which having already formed land and a part already appearing in low water. When these spaces are cut off from the moving current the process of reclamation would be made to work more rapidly so it is not extravagant to hope that within the course of twenty years the whole of these 450 square miles would be completely reclaimed and ready for cultivation. The profits from the new lands thus reclaimed would amount to about $29,760,000 if only taken at $20 per mow. The profits from the new lands would be netted from the beginning of the work and would increase every year up to the completion of the reclamation process.