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EAST ASIA.
The exports consist mainly in coal, medicines, and drugs of all sorts. Although
lying 1,000 miles above Shanghai, this place is now regularly visited by a Yang-tze
steamer, which usually finds 20 feet of water as far as the rapids. Most of the
Sechuen boats discharge their cargoes either at I-chang or at S/iazi, lower down,
whence the merchandise is conveyed in larger craft to Hankow. Before the intro-
duction of steam navigation, Shazi, which stretches for over 3 miles along the river,
had a larger trade than I-chang, and it still enjoys the advantage of direct com-
munication through the navigable Taiping Canal with Lake Tungting. Near
Shazi stands the stronghold of Kinchetc, on the left bank of the Yang-tze, a place
already mentioned by Confucius, but now possessing merely an administrative and
military importance.
The great cities of Hunan lie not on the Yang-tze, but in the interior, along the
routes between the Yang-tze and Si-kiang basins. Here one of the main water
highways is the river Yuen, florwing to Lake Tungting, and connected by canal
with other navigable waters. But most of the large junks on the Lower Yuen get
no farther than Chncheir-fn, the chief emporium of West Hunan. Farther down,
the thriving city of Changie-fu, 36 miles below the first rapids of the Yuen,
is accessible throughout the year to river craft of the largest size. But a much
more important place is Siangtan, which, though not the capital, is the chief city in
Hunan, and one of the great marts of the empire. It stands on a rapid of the
Siang, stretching for 3 miles along the left bank of the river, and with vast
suburbs radiating in every direction. Thousands of junks, from 25 to 30 tons
burden, are constantly anchored in front of the city, while lighter craft are able
to pass beyond the rapids much farther up. Siangtan, which occupies the
most central point in the eastern or richest division of Hunan,
is the natural
entrepot of the traffic between the central and southern provinces, through the
vitally important Kwei-ling, Che-ling, and Mei-ling Passes. It thus lies in the very
heart of the vast triangular space formed by the three great emporiums of Chung-
cheng, Hankow, and Canton. It has also become the chief centre of the trade in
medicines and all kinds of drugs for the whole of China. The surrounding tracks
are constantly blocked by caravans exclusively laden with roots, herbs, pills, and an
endless variety of nostrums required to meet the prodigious demand in a country
where these things are far more highly esteemed than amongst any other people.
The commercial revolution brought about by the opening of the treaty ports and
the introduction of steam navigation must, no doubt, ultimately diminish the
relative importance of Siangtan, which lies off the main line of this traffic. But
the loss may be more than repaired by the development of the coal-mining industry
in a region where the carboniferous deposits rival those of Pennsylvania in extent.
The bituminous coal of the immediate neighbourhood is little valued, but the
anthracite of Litii/aur/, in the Lui basin, is amongst the best known. Thousands of
boats are employed in transporting it to Siangtan and the Yang-tze, whence it
reaches Hankow and Nanking. The annual yield of the Lui-ho mines has been
estimated by Richthofen at about 150,000 tons.
Clinnycha, capital of Hunan, lies on the Siang, midway between Siangtan and