THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

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furnished  a  route  west  into  Szechwan.  By  the  Cheling  Pass
route  came  the  teas  of  Hunan  and  Hupeh  for  shipment
abroad  from  Canton  in  the  old  factory  days,  and  a  conservative ­
  trade  calls  those  teas  to-day,  in  the  land  of  their
origin,  by  the  old-time  Cantonese  names  Oonam  and  Oopack
(Hunan  and  Hupeh).  By  this  route,  too,  passed  an  enormous
traffic,  of  which  to-day  the  only  remnant  is  the  amount
required  for  local  trade  by  the  way.  Not  a  single  package
is  now  carried  through  between  Canton  and  Hankow,  for,
even  in  this  land  of  cheap  transport,  the  cheapness  and
security  offered  by  steam  carriage  have  prevailed,  and  this
trade  now  passes  around,  via  Shanghai,  by  the  sea  and  the
Yangtze.  The  railway  taking  the  Cheling  Pass  route  from
Canton  by  Hankow  to  Peking  will  adhere  closely  to  the  air
line  between  the  two  termini.
3.  The  Meiling  Pass  route  follows  the  North  River  up
from  Canton,  and  at  Shaochow  goes  north-east  to  the
Meiling  (Plum  Ridge)  Pass.  This  ridge  has  an  elevation
of  2,000  feet,  and  the  route  is  through  a  notch,  at  an
altitude  of  only  1,000  feet,  over  which  a  land  portage  of
24  miles  carries  the  trader  to  the  waters  of  the  Kan  River.
This  river  has  the  ordinary  winter  shallows  of  a  stream
running  through  a  deforested  country,  but  has  few  dangerous
rapids  ;  and  it  leads  through  the  channels  of  the  shallow
Poyang  Lake  into  the  Yangtze  near  Kiukiang.  By  this
route  passed,  in  the  old  factory  days,  the  teas  of  Kiangsi  and
Anhwei  ;  and  by  this  route  passed  then,  and  passes  now,
the  porcelain  of  Kingtehchen.  The  porcelain  of  to-day,
however,  consists  of  plain  ware  sent  to  Canton  to  be  painted
with  the  florid  and  multicolored  designs  peculiar  to  that
market.  A  curious  instance  of  the  conservatism  of  Chinese
trade  was  shown  in  1^03.  In  that  year,  in  the  general  search
for  additional  sources  of  revenue,  an  increase  was  made  in
the  rate  of  likin  levied  at  Canton  on  porcelain  from  Kiangsi.
The  trade  resented  this  ;  but,  instead  of  resorting  to  steam
traffic  by  the  Yangtze  and  the  sea,  and  thereby  escaping
the  likin  levied  on  the  inland  route,  the  traders  adopted
the  time-honored  Chinese  method  of  cessation  of  all  business