Untitled

TOPOGKAPIIY. 221
whose territory stretches southwards to the Lolo domain. Chinese women are not
allowed to cross this state to enter Tibet, but they are numerous in Tatsienlu, where
the Tibetan element is mainly represented by half-castes. Tatsienlu is the present
centre of the Roman Catholic missions for Tibet.
Below Tatsienlu, the Tatu-ho River, after emerging from a formidable gorge
with sheer walls 650 feet high, reaches the walls of Lntiiig-c/iao, the first city
lying completely beyond the Tibetan and Mantze lands. Beyond this point
joined by several tributaries, the united stream forming the Tung-ho, the chief
affluent of the Min, and even exceeding it in volume. The Min is navigable by
boats at all seasons as far as Kiating-fu, at the confluence of both rivers. This
place is one of the chief marts of Sechuen, whence the pei-la, or valuable vegetable
Fig.
98. CHINOTV-FU BASIN.
Scale 1 : 1,900.000.
SO Miles.
wax, is forwarded to all parts of China. It also receives by water the raw silk of
Yacfieic-fu, lying to the north-west on the route between Tibet and Chingtu-fu.
Here is prepared most of the brick tea intended for the Tibetan market. In the
neighbourhood is cultivated a species of the plant whose coarser leaves arc used in
this traffic. Vadiew is the chief stronghold and largest military depot on tho
frontier. In 1800 it held out successfully against the Taiping rebels, without tho
aid of the Imperial troops.
Cliinytii-fu, capital of Seehuen, still remains what it was in Marco Polo's time,
a " rich and noble city," although since then more than once plundered and even
destroyed. Nearly the whole population, said to have exceeded one million, was
exterminated by Kublai Khan. The present city is of recent origin, the Imperial
I'alace, probably its oldest building, dating only from the fourteenth century. The
105'
it is