The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-05-27
THE HEART OF CHINA
THE vICEROY OF HUPEH AND HIS
BUILDING OF RAILROADS.
Hankow and Chfna,s Great Trunk
Line OF the Future-Queer Sights
Along the Yangtse.

seven hundred miles from the seacoast,
and there are at this point three cities
which face each other, much as New York,
Jersey City and Brooklyn. which have an
aggregate population Of something like
two millions of people. Standing Pago-
da hill, behind the city of Hanyang, you
look down in fact upon the homes Of al
most three millions and you see hundreds
Of villages, thousands of boats, In which
families live and die, and have spread out
before you the three great cities OF Han
kow, Hanyang and Wuchang. In front or
you, facing the south, flows the broad
Yangtse river, which is at this place still
mile wide, and which is deep
throughout its course that the biggest
steamers that sail the ocean can come up
here and anchor at its wharves. The city
perhaps three-quarters of million peo-
on the opposite side is Wuchang. 1t has,
pie. and the high wall which runs around
Ii is twelve miles in length. 1t is the home
of one of the most progressive Governors
of China, and is the capital Of the State OF
Hupeh. which is bigger than the whole OF
New England. Turn TO your left. and you
see at your feet the city of Hanyang. with
its vast iron works, for the making of steel
rails. Beyond it across the river Han.
which is filled with boats that their
masts make you think OF a thicket of
hoop poles. is the vast plain covered with
the buildings of Hankow. which is even
larger than Wuchang, and which is the
commercial capital of this part of the en-
pire. AS you look over the landscape your
eye meets as much water. as land. The
mighty Yangtse above and below flows
on like a great inland sea. its bosom load
- and afl6S
Of queer looking junks. There are boats
before you which have come two thousand
miles down it's waters through the deep
gorges of Ichang, and mixed with them
are ships from Canton. Annoy, Foo Chow
and other great cities along the coast.
There are tea junks from the big Poyang
lake. and queer-looking craft from a thou
sand different localities. each having a build
and make peculiarly its own.
MYRIADS OF BOATS.
AS you look you realize the force OF the
assertion that China has more boats than
all of the rsst of the world put together
The Yangtse is here cut into by canals and
the great lagoons lying back in the country
are spotted with sails The river Han,
which has flowed 1900 miles in its winding
course from its source to its mouth, mas
brought down hundreds of river junks and
ships are being loaded at scores of these
wharyes for all parts of the empire and or
the world. To-day the trade of this place
amounts to about $37 00o,000 year and
every dollars worth of this has to be car
ried away by water. In the years to come
a large part Of it will go by land. and
railroads may make Hankow the greatest
city of Asia, if not the biggest on the globe
The probabilities are that this place will
Of fha mar r
ing centcrs of the world. There is coal and
iron near here in close proximity TO one
another. and the water communication is
such that coal can be shipped here from
almost any part of the empire. Already a
population of more than 100000 are trib-
utary 70 this point by rivers and canals.
and the great trunk line Of future China
will probably run through Hankow from
Picking to Canton, taking in more big cities
and a greater number OF people than any
other railroad on the globe. Picking has
million of people, Tientsin has more than
million, and Ii would be on the line only
eighty miles south of the imperial capital.
From thence it would cut its way further
south by about five hundred miles through
one of the most thickly settled parts or the
empire to Hankow. where 1t would strike
these cities of two millions. From here on
to Canton it cannot be more than hve nun
dred miles. and the land is rich in the ex-
IRENE and it teens with millions. canton
is one of the great trading centers of the
world and 1t is said to have about three
millions of population. The whole length
of the road would be less than 1900 miles,
and there would not be a waste spot on IL.
It will take but little grading, and it would,
7 Judge. be a comparatively cheap road to
huild 1t would be a Decline from north TO
south China, and would be largely patron
lied as soon as the Chinese discovered It's
value There are no people on the globe
quicker to make use Of good thing and
cheap thing than these Chinese.
AS it is, they have the dearest of modes
of travel, and though their wheeiparroWs
and boats carry goods for almost nothing
in comparison with the labor spent In run
ming them, they are dear in competition
with steam. AS 1t is, the steamers on the
Yangtse ARE kept up by Chinese freight
and passengers and every steamboat I
have seen has been crowded with them
They ride first and second class, and many
OF them take a sort of steerage passage,
sleeping in hunks in a large compartment
in the rear end of the steamers
CHINAS FIRST RAILROAD.
The first railroad In China was from
Shanghai to Woo5ung, a distance Oh ABOUT
twelve miles Woosung Is the bar at the
mouth of the Whampoa river, and this
road did big business till some Of the
Chinese complained to the authorities. The
officials bought the road at high price
from the foreigners who owned It, and
threw the locomotive, which they said con-
tanned a devil into the river. Some of
the rails are still left, and 1t may be that
q will he hrIilf m he ftlfl
One thing is very certain. and that is the
moment the Chinese appreciate that they
can make and run roads of their own
their superstition will not stand in the
way of making them, and many of the Of
ficials are experimenting to see wha: they
can do. I saw locomotive which had
been recently built by the Chinese ma
chinists at the Kiagnan arsenal near
Shanghai, and it runs as well as any OF
our engines. / was shown railroad iron
1 mean steel rails-which they had made
there with Chinese iron, and there seems
T to be no doubt but that they can manage
a rolling mill very well. There is vast
deal of waste now, it is true, and this
will continue as long as the work Is done
by the officials, who expect TO get a Big
living out of their stealings; but 1t will
be different when factories of this kind
are started as private enterprises. Just
now the chief movements in the direction
of railroads are from the government. and