Fascinating Story of China's Second Greatest Waterway: The Mud-Stirring Activities of the Dragons J. Todd, the ional Famine Relic] Commission, Union Language school, Peking. It ts reproduced be-found full interest.
To the imagination of every engineer and to many other travellers wishing to see the great monuments of man, China, offers three outstanding exhibits especially worthy of study—the Grand Canal, the Great Wall, and the dikes and bank protection of the Yellow River, These are all remarkable because of their extent and the immense amount of human labour that has gone into them. They all represent the work of tens of thousands of men for many years. They are all of the greatest interest to the student of structures but of these by far the most fascinating to the engineer is the Yellow River channel and its dikes.
At Tokyo last autumn during the World Engineering Congress General Jadwin, recently Chief Engineer of the U, S. Army appointed to head the new Mississippi River Commission, told me that in his coming visit to China in Dec ember the spot he most desired visiting was in eastern Honan where in 1851 the Yellow River had Teapt from the bed it had occupied for 500 years and taken up present course to the northeast. Floods due to serious dike breaks difficulties presented by this river makes-the study all the more allure ing. It is one of China's three great rivers—sharing honours with the: Yangtze and the West River. It has been far more unruly than the others, is of much less value as an avenue of commerce, and has required closer watching and more costly. training.
The history of this river goes back into the legendary period. The Great Flood of China has been placed at 2297 B.C. Engineer Vu is said to have spent eight hard years in preparing suitable channels to take care of these flood waters so that this stream would not repeat the catastrophe of that period. Since history for that period is not dependable it is interesting to spreuiate on what measures he, was able to adopt in that remote age aside from exten-channel digging and earth dikes, rivetted perhaps, as to-day, by kaoliang stalk pack work, Of course the Yellow not remain where Vu put it though records indicate that it kept closely to the same course for nearly 17 following a north-easter-along the Mississippi River in recent years had so wrought up the American public that our Congress had voted $100,000,000 to be applied to a conservancy programme for that great river. With this problem of river control as his major task in recent years General Jadwin was not half as interested in the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, or the Peking Man as he was in this most troublesome of China's rivers and how in past generations it had been controlled to a remarkable degree, My own interest in this dates back to 1919 when I came to China for the first time. The world famous hydraulic engineer, John R. Freeman, had brought me to this country to assist him in making studies connected with the problem of rehabilitating the Grand Canal through Shantung Province. Eighty years ago the Yellow River had cut across the Grand Canal in northern Shantung silting the bed of this until it was finally abandoner way for through The resuscitation of this famous old monument to early Chinese engineering skill was a matter of no. small moment, and the studies Drought us into a" very intimate relation with the Yellow River. We had our introduction on the voyage out as we read literature dealing With her history and her eharacterwe saw the effect of her restless dragons in their favourite mud-stirring act as the yellow soil of her waters drifted far out to sea to meet our boat; we traversed by rail the Great Plain built up by the aut she had brought down from the hills of north-west Chin: wwe met in the field and bee quainted with her in her various moods during those next eighteen months while preparing the report Mr, Freeman was to issue to the to Tientsin and then east to sca at Taku. Since that time it has wandered back and forth from north to south, at times pouring parts of its flood into the' Yangtze near Nanking, but making the Huai River in Kiangsu the southern terminus for its main channel. Tt has been so formidable that it is seldom restored to its old bed after a serious break such as occurred when it took up its present course through Shantung. It has conquer.
each part of the country it invaded and remained for centuries until its vagaries have led it to) seek another outlet to the sea,"
This power to take over new terrain at will as repeatedly illustrate ed through history has caused government authorities in the past to attach the greatest importance to its control. In Shantung for years the Yellow River Bureau was second only to the provincial army in prestige and extent of orga tion. It was. supplied with approximately $500,000 annually and should have had three or four times that amount. Honan also has had a Yellow River Bureau of importance that still functions with limit-financial support.
That the Yellow controlled under ordinary conditions has been amply demonstrated. In extreme flood, however, danger frequently occurs and man's efforts have repeatedly proved futile. Under heavy attack by swift cur-bearing into an unprotected the loose soil dissolves like sugar and a breach may occur before rock snd trees and kaoliang in sufficient quantities can be brought to the scene to protect the carthbanks. But with intelligent direction and a suitable fund this wishes of man and remain in a definite channel deli sibilities of modernizing the Grand Canal. acquaintance made in my carly days here has never been forgotten. In fact I have gone back time and again to renew it and learn more about this strange creature who has proved both a curse and a blessing to China. In 1022 and 1923 I was engaged almost continually on bank protec tion, dike building and reversion work in the lower Yellow River. use. It is this possibility lures the student of Then, too, it is constantly in the minds of men that all this water should not flow out to sea while the Great Plain of China parches and famines occur that wipe out millions of the population. The possibility of devoting part of this flow to watering adjacent territory is appealing to every one of Why 50 little has been done in this line will appear as we stady the nature of this river.
During the past year I have been studying this river from the standpoint of irrigation and the necessary regulation connected with the diversion of a part of it for a land reclamation project in Suiyuan, Within the next two years new studies will be made at Tengkow (Saiyuan) that will tell us things of which we are not yet sure regarding this old friend. The many 'Meeting at sea the muddy water' from this river's floods a century ago was somewhat different from to-day's experience. Now we must take the trip from Tientsin to Shanghai or Japan to get the full benefit of a Yellow River flood painting its name on the sea, Then the outlet was in Kiangsu near the southern end of the Yellow Sea made more colourful than now by mouth is less than 200 miles to the south. Now the Yellow River centers the Gulf of Chili 600 miles up the coast from its mouth of a hundred years ago, The water of this famous river: is as yellow at flood time as the yellow loess soil from the hills of Kansu, The name is fully as appropriate as that of the Red River in Yunnan or the Hung Shui Kiang in Kuangsi, both of which carry down heavy loads of red clay in food time. China has mai Bos and Sha. Bos noted for their clear water oF stream can rival the Yellow int. Swim. ming in its flood waters is seldom unless a near-by pond of clear water offers a chance to rinse off the yellow and mud on reaching shore, Rising in Tibet at an altitude of 13,000 feet with a branch feeding in'from Szechuan this river Tength of something over miles. On its way to the coast enters or touches the provinces of Kansu, Ninghsi Honan,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.