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306 EAST ASIA.
follow this line, which is practicable for carriages throughout the whole distance of
2,580 miles from Zaisan to Hankow except a section of 160 miles, which presents
no difficulty to pack animals. It can be traversed in 140 days, whereas by the far
more difficult Kiakhta road, which is 1,800 miles longer, it takes 202 days to reach
Peking. The whole of the route between Hankow and Zaisan was traversed by
Sosnovski in the year 1881." *
Hitherto the construction of railways has not been sanctioned by the Imperial
Government. Except in the neighbourhood of the coal mines and dockyards, there
Fig. 146. GENERAL VIEW OF NANKING.
are not even any tramways in the empire. Yet the success of the short line
between Shanghai and Wusung, tolerated for a few months by the authorities,
shows that the locomotive would soon become as popular in the extreme East
as elsewhere. The plans of the main lines from Tientsin to Peking, Shanghai to
Fuchew and Hangchew-fu, Canton to Nanking, have already been prepared
by the English engineers, and abundant capital would be forthcoming for their
* A. II. Keaue's " Asia," 1882.