INTERNAL  TRADE  315
small  indication  of  the  extent  of  traffic  is  found  in  the  value
of  the  transit  pass  trade  with  Shantung  passing  the  Chinkiang
  Customs,  traversing  a  distance  along  the  Grand
Canal  of  250  miles,  a  part  of  it  the  worst  portion  of  the  route,
to  the  nearest  markets  in  Shantung,  valued  in  1904  at
Tls.3,646,000,  and  in  1905  at  Tls.3,331,000.
10.  The  Shansi  route  is  mentioned  to  illustrate  the
medieval  conditions  prevailing  in  China  wherever  transport
by  water  is  not  available.  The  province  may  be  described
either  as  an  accidented  plateau  or  an  unaccidented  mountain ­
  region,  with  a  steep  escarpment  on  the  east,  where  it
rises  some  4,000  feet  from  the  plain  of  Chihli.  The  route
followed  by  the  railway  in  course  of  construction  from
Chentow,  near  Chengtingfu,  in  Chihli,  to  Taiyuanfu,  the
capital  of  Shansi,  affords  the  direct  route  from  the  lowland
into  the  heart  of  the  province  ;  but  this  is  what  may  be
termed  an  express  package  route,  short  and  direct,  but  too
difficult  for  ordinary  purposes  of  trade.  When  the  great
famine  of  1877,  which  more  than  decimated  the  province,
made  it  necessary  to  send  supplies  of  food  to  Shansi,  this
route  was  naturally  selected  to  meet  the  urgency  of  the
case  ;  and  the  result  was  visible  in  the  piles  of  grain  in  bags,
the  broken  carts,  and  the  foundered  mules  which  strewed
the  road  leading  up  to  the  plateau.  Another  route  available ­
  for  access  to  Shansi  passes  from  Kaifeng  in  Honan  up
the  valley  of  the  Yellow  River  to  the  south-western  corner
of  Shansi,  thence  up  the  valley  of  the  Fenho  toward
Taiyuanfu  ;  neither  the  Yellow  River  nor  its  tributaries
are  generally  navigable,  and  this  circuitous  route  is  in  the
main  available  only  for  land  transport.  A  third  route,
and  the  one  generally  adopted  for  the  transport  of  merchandise ­
  into  Shansi,  follows  in  its  beginning  the  next
route  to  be  mentioned,  the  Kiakhta  route,  leaving  it  at
Kalgan  (Changkiakow),  entering  Shansi  at  its  northern
end,  and  preceeding  by  Tatungfu  south  to  Taiyuanfu.
The  length  of  land  transport  from  the  nearest  navigable
water-way  by  this  route  is  not  less  than  400  miles,  and
by  the  road  from  Chengtingfu  is  only  150  miles,  yet  this