TRANSPORT IN CHINA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1940, Page 9

TRANSPORT IN CHINA

RETURN TO ANCIENT WAYS. CARRIAGE BY COOLIES & PACK ANIMALS. The closing of the trade routes through Indo-China and Burma (the latter has since been reopened) has given an impetus to China's revival of the modes of transportation employed in ancient times, a correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor" in Chungking states. A network of coolie and animal transport is being organised all over China, even behind the Japanese lines. Deprived of the modern .methods of transportation of the Occident, China turns to her long past for a solution. Fortunately for China, the use of coolies and pack-trains for transport never wholly disappeared. But the system is being revived in areas which have possessed modern means of transport for years. Neglected imperial highways—really stone paths about three feet wide —are being reconstructed, and transportation experts eagerly scan ancient imperial maps for information about the best routes. Coolie transport is particularly useful for smuggling—and with the main lines of communication inoperative, China must resort to smuggling to get what she needs. Small junks unload goods on some deserted beach, and from the mountains come hundreds of coolies, who quickly carry the goods into the interior. One coolie can carry about 70 pounds 20 miles a day. The highly organised coolie and animal transport of today is a modernised version of the old i-chan system, developed to hold the decentralised empire together. It was first organised in the Chou dynasty (1122-249 8.C.) and gradually developed into a national institution possessed of regular stations along the imperial roads, station masters, hostels, and stables, Liu Pang, first Emperor of the Han dynasty, started his career as a stationmaster in northern Kiangsu. The system was so perfected by the time of the Tang dynasty (G2O-907 A.D.) that Yang Kwei-fei. a famous beauty and consort of the Emperor, was kept supplied with lichi by mounted couriers. At that time the fastest communication was by special court couriers, who, with a small flag attached to their coat collar, dashed along the roads at full speed, changing horses every few kilometers.