Untitled

Mongolia, dates only from the year
TOPOGRAPHY. 229
1879. The teas intended for Russia are
shipped at Shanghai either directly for Odessa or for Tientsin, whence they are
taken by caravan to Kalgan and Kiakhta. Hankow is destined one day to be the
terminus of the highway from the Upper Irtish through Kansu to the Yang-tze-
kiang basin. Negotiations have already been set on foot with a view to the open-
ing of this route, which will itself be replaced sooner or later by the great Central
Asiatic trunk line of railway. Meantime the direct seaward trade of Hankow is
represented by over fifteen hundred vessels, with a tonnage of nearly a million,
of which less than one-half is Chinese, and most of the rest British.
Along the banks of the Han the chief ports are Hanchung-fn, a former imperial
capital ; Sinpu-iran, noted for its steel works ; Chichiatien,
Fig. 103. HANKOW AND SURROUNDING LAKKS.
Scale 1 : 3,750.000.
60 Miles
at the head of the navi-
gation, over 4 miles in circumference ; Laoho-kow, with a large cotton trade ; and
54 miles lower down the twin cities of Siangyang-fii and Faiig-cln-ng, on the right
and left banks respectively, near the confluence of the Tang-ho and Pei-ho, which
give access to the rich plains of Honan and the Hoang-ho basin. Midway between
Faog-ehe&g and Hankow is the busy port of Sluii/iiiiij-chcii, where Riehthofen saw
as many as five hundred large junks moored to the quays. Most of these places
stand at some distance from the Han to avoid its disastrous floodings.
Below Hankow the narrow rocky peninsula between Lake 1'oyang and the
Yang-tZfl is occupied by Klti-kiiin/j, or the " City ol' the Nine Rivers," which does a
IttTgC trade in tea and tobacco, and where there is a European quarter, protected
like that of Hankow by a strong embankment of recent erection. Ndiichiuiij,
capital of Kiangsi, lies in a fertile plain at the head of the delta of the Kia-kiang