FROM YUNNAN-FU TO LAO-KAI Aug. 25—Sept. 15

HERE are two routes open to the traveller desirous of escaping from the remote capital of Yunnan to the outside world and the civilisation of the West—both arduous and difficult, both leading over high mountain passes and by deep river valleys—the one due west to the valley of the Irrawaddy, across the defiles of the Mekong and the Salween, and so on to Rangoon—the other due south to the valley of the Red River and thence to the coast at Haiphong, the seaport of French Tonking. If bound to Kurope, the road to Rangoon is the more direct, and by much the shorter: returning to China, we chose the way by the Red River rather than traverse once again the terrible pathways of Lao-wa-t‘an and northern Yunnan; not- withstanding that the latter leads across the healthy uplands of the northern plateau, while the southern route dips down to the low encased valley of the Red River, which has at this season a bad reputation for heat and malaria, and by which we found the discomforts of travel far greater than those on the land journey. On the other hand Haiphong could be reached from Yunnan-fu in about a fortnight, while the journey overland to Sui-fu—where the Yangtse is reached and the luxurious travel on the Great River is resumed—would occupy a full month’s time.

從雲南府到老街

8月25日—9月15日

有兩條路線可以讓旅行者從偏遠的雲南府前往外界，接觸西方的文明——這兩條路線都艱難險阻，都要翻越高山隘口，穿過深深的河谷。一條是向正西，穿越瀾滄江和薩爾溫江的峽谷，抵達伊洛瓦底江谷地，然後繼續前往仰光；另一條則是向正南，通過紅河谷地，最終抵達法屬東京的海港城市海防。如果是前往歐洲，通往仰光的路線更加直接，且要短得多。然而，我們選擇了經過紅河的路線，而不是再次踏上老瓦灘和雲南北部的艱難道路。儘管北部路線經過健康的高原，而南部路線則下沉到紅河低窪的封閉河谷——這裡在這個季節以酷熱和瘧疾而惡名昭著。我們發現這段旅程的不便遠遠超過了陸路旅行的困難。另一方面，從雲南府到海防大約只需兩週，而陸路到達綏福——那裡可以重新開始長江的舒適旅程——則需要整整一個月的時間。

83

84 ACROSS YUNNAN

In leaving Yunnan for the coast, we diverged from the direct road to Méng-tse in order to learn somewhat of the progress of the railway then building: so, instead of proceeding due south and following along the east shore of the Yunnan lake, we turned off almost due east across the mountains to the city of Y-liang, the seat of the headquarters staff of the northern section of the road. The “ tracet ”’ or alignment of the railway had been a sore subject of discussion and had been twice changed ; the question being: Should the line follow the old Chinese trade route to Méng-tse and Man-hao, thus taking in the principal cities and tapping the more populous valleys of the region; or should the alignment be the easiest obtainable from a technical point of view ? Both presented great engineering difficulties, involving heavy outlay for cuttings and tunnels, so that it is not surprising that the engineers should have finally decided on taking the line round by defiles which nature had excavated, although the country passed through is mostly without population or trade.

在離開雲南前往海岸的途中，我們偏離了通往蒙自的直線道路，想要了解當時正在修建的鐵路進展。因此，我們並未沿著雲南湖的東岸向正南前行，而是幾乎向正東穿越山區，前往鐵路北段總部所在地的宜良市。鐵路的「線路走向」（tracet 或 alignment）曾經是激烈討論的焦點，且已經兩次更改。爭論的問題是：鐵路應該沿著中國傳統的商道，經過蒙自和蔓耗，從而覆蓋主要城市並觸及人口較為密集的山谷地區？還是應該從技術角度選擇最容易的路線？兩者都面臨巨大的工程挑戰，並且需要為挖掘隧道和路堑支付高額費用，因此工程師最終決定讓鐵路繞行自然形成的隘口，儘管該路線大部分地區人口稀少，貿易活動也幾乎不存在，這也就不足為奇了。

FROM YUNNAN-FU TO LAO-KAI 85

86 ACROSS YUNNAN

The Yunnan plateau, as we have before stated, is nothing but an endless succession of small isolated oases—cuvettes or basins—some filled with deep-water lakes, others partially occupied by shallow meres,—dotted about amidst a sea of rugged mountains. These basins, where alone the Chinese staff of life, paddy, is cultivable, are naturally the only abodes of population, who communicate with each other by passes over the walls of their respective basins ; the few small rivers that flow above ground have cut out deep narrow defiles in the limestone and have provided no surplus room for villages or agriculture, while their gorges form a practically impassable barrier to inter-communication. The main problem, therefore, before the Yunnan Railway Company, was how best to climb the wall-like ascent of 5,000 feet from the Red River valley on to the plateau ; whether to ascend by a natural gorge and so proceed in the direction of least resistance, but through a wild, unpeopled country, or whether to follow the old road and so pass from basin to basin either over the intervening mountains or beneath them. This latter was the plan originally selected, but, after much time and money had been spent on the survey and some preliminary work had been executed, it was ultimately determined to follow up the defile of an affluent which rises on the high plateau to the east of Méng-tse, and 2,000 feet above that town, and thence falls into the Red River at Lao-kai. North of Méng-tse and between itand Yunnan-fu, the line now determined upon follows up the comparatively easy valley of the Ta-chéng-kiang up to the “basin” in which stands the city of Y-liang, leaving the high road from Méng-tse to Yunnan, from which it is separated by a lofty mountain range, some 30 miles to the west. After traversing Y-liang the railway turns west, winds through another deep gorge and then, crossing a low pass (500’), at length emerges in the: Yunnan: plain. - The a distance from Lao-kai to Yunnan-fu by the new “ tracet ”’ is 448.2 kilometres (280 miles), which is six kilometres longer than by the old “tracet.”’ This is the work to be carried out by the Yunnan Railway Co., who will eventually have the exploitation of the whole line from Haiphong to Yunnan-fu, a distance of 521 miles, in their hands, for which a loan of £4,000,000 has been guaranteed at 34 per cent. interest by the French Government. From Hanoi to Lao-kai, a distance of 311 miles, the railway, which follows up the left bank of the Red River, is being built by the Public Works Department, i.e., by the Government of French Indo-China, and this line the department is under penalty to the Yunnan Company to complete by April of 1905. At the moment the line was only in working order as far as Viétry, 225 kilometres short of Lao-kai ; the line had been laid up to Yen-bay, 82 kilometres farther, but on this section the embankments along the river had been washed away by the summer freshets. When trains are running through the whole 521 miles from Haiphong to Yunnan-fu, as it is expected they will be three years hence; the Yünnan sanatorium with its dry bracing air may well take precedence of Japan as the health resort of Tonking and South China.

雲南高原，正如我們之前所提到的，只是一系列無盡的小型孤立綠洲——窪地或盆地——有些被深水湖泊填滿，有些部分被淺水濕地覆蓋，點綴在一片崎嶇不平的山脈之中。這些盆地是中國主糧——稻米——唯一可以種植的地方，自然也是居民的唯一棲息地。這些居民通過翻越各自盆地的山口來互相聯繫；而地面上流淌的少數小河已經切割出狹窄的峽谷，無法為村莊或農業提供額外的空間，這些峽谷成為幾乎不可逾越的交流屏障。因此，雲南鐵路公司面臨的主要問題是如何爬升5000英尺，從紅河谷進入高原：是順著自然形成的峽谷，沿著阻力最小的路線行進，穿越荒蕪無人區，還是遵循舊路線，從一個盆地到另一個盆地，翻越或穿過山脈？

最初選擇的是後者，但在耗費大量時間和資金進行調查並完成了一些前期工作後，最終決定沿著從蒙自以東高原升起的支流峽谷修建鐵路。該支流位於蒙自以北約2000英尺處，最終流入老街的紅河。在蒙自以北，以及蒙自和雲南府之間，新確定的鐵路路線沿著相對平緩的塔成江河谷，直至抵達宜良盆地，該路線與通往雲南的主幹道相隔一座高山脈，距離約30英里。

穿過宜良後，鐵路轉向西方，繞過另一個深谷，然後經過一個低海拔山口（500英尺），最終進入雲南平原。從老街到雲南府的新「線路走向」長448.2公里（280英里），比舊走向長6公里。這是雲南鐵路公司負責的工程，該公司最終將負責整條從海防到雲南府的鐵路，全長521英里，法國政府已經為此保證提供400萬英鎊的貸款，年利率為3.4%。

從河內到老街的鐵路全長311英里，沿著紅河左岸修建，這段鐵路由法屬印度支那的公共工程部門負責建設，該部門必須在1905年4月前完工，否則將受到雲南公司的懲罰。當時鐵路僅運營至距老街225公里的維特里，鋪設至延白的82公里路段上，沿河的堤防被夏季洪水沖毀。

當整條從海防到雲南府521英里的鐵路貫通後——預計約三年後，雲南療養院因其乾燥清新的空氣可能會超越日本，成為東京和華南的健康療養勝地。

We reached Y-liang on the second day out from Yunnan-fu, passing along the "chemin de service," a "cornice" road, cut by the railroad men, which skirts the mountains to the north of the Yang-tsung-hai, a charming mountain lake, about 12 by 2 miles, which the French call "Petite Suisse," and where it was in contemplation to open a station and build a summer hotel when the line is completed. The scenery thereabouts was very pleasing, the mountains being wooded and abounding in orchids, which we picked as we went along, especially one like a white bird with wings outspread, six inches across, and with a tail as long in comparison as that of a Reeves pheasant. The good Father Maire at Yunnan-fu seemed to think it new to Europe. Chinese habitations are conspicuous by their absence, and the whole country has the charm of a region newly opened to travel. The little lake is entirely enclosed by mountains and its waters are deep blue. We descended to the ford of the small river which drains the lake eastwards and which joins the Y-liang basin by a deep gorge, of which the engineers have taken advantage to run the railway through it. All gorges in limestone country have a family likeness, and this one might be the Wushan Gorge of the Yangtse on a small scale, with its clifis rising vertically from the water’s edge, capped by steep mountain slopes above. The gorge is some ten miles Jong, while the river, that has cut it out, is barely twenty yards in width: it flows with a fierce current, the city of Y-liang lying nearly 1000 feet below the level of Yunnan-fu. The roar of the stream and the boom of the explosions where the tunnels, of which there are sixteen in this one defile, are being blasted out, was audible on the chemin de service, which is cut at a level some six hundred feet above the water, the mountain peaks rising nearly 1000 feet higher. The first night we slept in a temple,{which the railway company had cleared out and built on to for their staff. There were no tables nor chairs, and our servants were for the first time at fault and could suggest no substitutes for these invariable concomitants in every Chinese inn.

我們在從雲南府出發的第二天到達了宜良，沿著由鐵路工人修建的「服務道路」（chemin de service）行進，這是一條「盤山」公路，環繞著陽宗海以北的山脈。陽宗海是一個美麗的高山湖泊，約長12英里、寬2英里，法國人稱之為「小瑞士」（Petite Suisse）。據說當鐵路完工時，這裡將考慮建立一個車站並建造一座夏季旅館。周圍的景色非常宜人，山上長滿了樹木，盛開著各種蘭花。我們一路上摘採了許多蘭花，尤其是一種像白色鳥兒展翅的蘭花，寬約六英寸，尾巴的長度與一隻麗鷴（Reeves pheasant）的尾羽相仿。雲南府的馬雷神父（Father Maire）似乎認為這對歐洲來說是一個新發現。

中國的住宅在這片地區幾乎完全看不到，整片山區彷彿是一個剛剛開放給旅者的神秘之地。這個小湖被群山環抱，湖水深藍，風景如畫。我們下到一個小河的渡口，這條小河自湖向東排水，穿過一個深邃的峽谷，並與宜良盆地匯合。工程師們利用這條峽谷修建了鐵路。在石灰岩地區的峽谷大多都有相似之處，這條峽谷讓人聯想到縮小版的長江巫山峽谷，峭壁從水邊垂直升起，上方則是險峻的山坡。峽谷約有十英里長，而河流的寬度僅有二十碼，水流湍急，宜良城幾乎比雲南府低了一千英尺。隧道施工區的爆炸聲和河流的轟鳴聲在服務道路上依然可聞，這條道路位於水面以上六百英尺，而山峰則高出水面將近一千英尺。