One who has never traveled in the interior of China has little or no conception, of the amount of road travelifig that really can be done by motor, wrote Max Friedman, Managing director of Messrs. China Motors, Fed, Inc, to the Dodge "Graphic." In fact, very few people realize that' modern roads are constantly being built linking up the various Provinces with a network of modern highways. Considering the topography of China the great number of roads already in use, many transportation experts consider it a Herculean accomplishment.
No longer is China obliged to depend solely upon waterways for transportation, a highly uncertain method of travel, as at many seasons of the year the river levels are too low to reach interior points. This was well demonstrated recently when we delivered a number of Dodge trucks to Changsha, Honan Province. Early this year two fleets of Dodge trucks, purchased by the Chinese Government, started from Shanghai for this distant city. It was the first time that a fleet of trucks had traversed this entire distance. In order to reach their final destination, they had to be ferried across rivers twelve times, yet they made the entire distance of 872 miles in the remarkable time of four days, with no night travelling.
A special feature of these Government trucks is that they are equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks having a capacity of 135 gallons. This is economical as well as convenient, for refueling is an expensive item in many parts of the interior.
The present ment, under progressive Govern-the able leadership of the prime mover in highway building, has done wonders in improving transportation facilities, and has built thousands of miles of highways throughout China. Because of this modernization, China Motors, Dodge distributors for Central China, are now able to deliver Dodge trucks to the Honan Highway Bureau of Changsha, with the same speed and in the same manner that Dodge trucks are delivered in the United States, to-day.
Curiously enough, the most primitive methods of transportation still exist in China side by side with ihe most modern. Less than ten years ago, travelers saw barefooted toolles jogging along a narrow footpath with bags of mail balanced from the ends of a pole just as it was carried 3,000 years ago, and is still being carried inman places throughout China. These same travelers would now see hundreds of motor trucks speeding along the principal highways, bearing the Government's mail, or they might see the sudden flash of glistening wings as a Government mail plane speeds to some distant province. Each is important and each is doing its part in modernize ing and developing the new commercial life of China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.