Three squadrons of the National Air Force are stationed at Nanchang, the forth being at Hangchow. The aeroplanes used include Fiat and North-Yap bombers, Douglas observation planes, Voight Corsair light bombers, Breguct bombers, Curtiss Hawk pursuit planes, and Consolidated Fleet training machines. The dally flights of these modern instruments of war low over the roots of the city are now 50 common a sight that they attract little or no attention, As yet, there is no air service to Nanchang, communication to the city being chiefly by highway or railroad. The nearest airport is Kiukiang, five to seven hours away by rail.
Geographically "and historically speaking, the history of Nanchang is very closely linked up with that of the province, and with the opening. of the new Chekiang-Kiangsi Railway. this will become even more apparent in the near future than ever before. To the south of Kiangs! lie Kuangtung and Kwangsi, which formerly, formed the Vice regency of Liang-Kwang, Three historic routes once led from the hills of Liangkwang the northern provinces, the most Important of these being by way of the River Pel, from Canton to Nanchang, which formed part of the old imperial highway.
This was the route followed first by Lord Macartney, who. was appointed the first British Envoy to China, dur-Ing the middle of the 18th century, and by Lord William Pitt Amherst, who was sent in 1816 as an Ambas: sador Extraordinary to China. His mission proved a failure, for he was refused permission to enter Peking because, on the advice of Sir George Staunton, he refused to perform the traditional "kowtow" unless the admission was made that his sovereign was entitled to the same respect from a mandarin, Nanchang city is situated almost at the foot of the Lushan Mountain group, south of Kiukiang; this group of mountains, which attains a height of 4,000 fect in places, is well known to foreigners all over China, for it houses the summer resort of Kuling, North of the city, and connected to it by the River Kan, is the Poyang, Lake, one of the to lakes which dominate the Yangtze Valley. The actual basin of the lake is south of Kiukiang, In Central Kiangsi, and its boundaries extend along the Kan Kiang, to Linkiang.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.