OCR Text |
Show China Fights Erosion with U. S. Aid 663 "Dig the Channel Deep; Keep the Spillway Low" In these six characters Li Ping set forth the regulations for the maintenance of the Tu Kiang Irrigation Project which for more than 2,000 years has watered the fabulously productive Chengtu Plain in Szechwan. The plaque bearing his instructions occupies a ceremonial position on the great stairway leading to the altar of the temple dedicated to his son Er Wang, who completed the plans he formulated (pages 646-7). section is more rapidly melting away with the storms of the centuries which have beaten upon it. End to end, the wall in a straight line would be about 1,250 miles long, but in its windings it stretches 2,000 miles. It contains enough material to form a wall 3 feet thick and 8 feet high around the earth at the Equator. We followed this western wall of tamped earth and saw that storm floods rushing out of the mountains had, in places, swept away sections of it. The Peita River is undermining the last huge tower at the westernmost end, and I jumped back quickly from where I was taking pictures when I discovered I was on a 300-foot precipice protruding far out over the gorge. Although the Great Wall is one of the world's wonders as an engineering achievement, it is also a monument to an equally great failure of governments in times past to harmonize the economies of grazing and farming. The elements in this age-old conflict that has cursed northwest China for two thousand years are still present. I did not see a stack of hay for winter feed of herds of nomads that must come in off the cold steppe in winter. Improved welfare of the region calls for hay to feed and fatten the herds coming off summer ranges in the interests of farmer and nomad and of the towns. Now this old-new part of China is having a boom. Building is going on apace in the cities of Wuwei, Changyeh, and Kiuchuan of the Corridor. Commerce is lively. Government banks are being established to give credit to new enterprises. Reconstruction in China's new frontier in this Northwest is the talk of marts and hostels as people of many affairs come and go (Plates VI and XVI). The Tibetan Borderlands From Lanchow again we set off for Sining, capital of the Province of Tsinghai, and to find the Yellow River where its waters are generally clear. Tsinghai Province was created in recent years by combining a portion of Kansu and northeastern Tibet. For twenty-five years I had wanted to see Tibet's Koko Nor (Tsing Hai-Blue Lake). At last my ambition was realized. Koko Nor is a gem of sapphire set in an emerald basin bordered by green-clad mountains capped with snow. |