YUNNAN-FU June 12—August 21
AS is the case with all Chinese mountain cities, the capital of Yunnan enjoys a most picturesque situation. Emerging from the plain it stands on a limestone ridge, along which its north wall runs; the southern wall encloses much flat land, including a considerable extent of paddyfields and lotus ponds, across which run stone causeways leading to temples and tea-houses ; a bit of Japan with Chinese dirt and decay thrown in. The view over the city and the distant lake and the amphitheatre of surrounding mountains is very beautiful, as one takes a seat on one of the rugged limestone rocks, that cover the face of the slope of the ridge inside the north wall. Like Peking and Chéngtu, the city is full of fine trees, amidst which glitter the variegated tiled roofs of the many temples and guildhalls. The eye reaches across the city, with its very elegant twin pagodas marking the spot where the Burmese tribute bearers used to assemble—the stable for their elephants was near the British Consulate, where a new school was being built—and across the wide lake to the mountains beyond: these distant mountains form the water-parting between the valley of the Yangtse, to which the drainage of the Yunnan Lake basin belongs, and the drainage of the lakes in the east of the province which goes to feed the West River of Canton. At this season the cloud effects are very fine; showers are constantly proceeding at some portion of the circumference, and, night after night, the sunset was preceded by a rainbow in the east. A walk through the city is not so pleasing: the streets are narrow and the shops extraordinarily small and necessarily accommodating a very limited stock of goods ; they are more like booths at a fair, but built of adobe bricks, with roofs too low for me to stand upright under; the population looks well-dressed and well-fed, although the men appear to spend their time mostly in smoking cigars out of inordinately long bamboo pipes,— and guildhalls. The eye reaches across the city, with its very elegant twin pagodas marking the spot where the Burmese tribute bearers used to assemble—the stable for their elephants was near the British Consulate, where a new school was being built—and across the wide lake to the mountains beyond: these distant mountains form the water-parting between the valley of the Yangtse, to which the drainage of the Yunnan Lake basin belongs, and the drainage of the lakes in the east of the province which goes to feed the West River of Canton. At this season the cloud effects are very fine; showers are constantly proceeding at some portion of the circumference, and, night after night, the sunset was preceded by a rainbow in the east. A walk through the city is not so pleasing: the streets are narrow and the shops extraordinarily small and necessarily accommodating a very limited stock of goods ; they are more like booths at a fair, but built of adobe bricks, with roofs too low for me to stand upright under; the population looks well-dressed and well-fed, although the men appear to spend their time mostly in smoking cigars out of inordinately long bamboo pipes,— and a foreigner in the streets attracts no notice whatever.
正如所有中國的山城一樣，雲南省會擁有極其優美的地理位置。這座城市從平原中拔地而起，座落在一條石灰岩山脊上，北城牆沿著山脊延伸；南城牆則圍繞著一大片平坦的土地，這片區域包括廣大的稻田和蓮花池，石橋穿過池塘，通向寺廟和茶館，景象讓人聯想到日本，只是多了些中國式的污穢和衰敗。
當你坐在北城牆內山脊上那些崎嶇的石灰岩石頭上時，可以俯瞰整座城市，遠處的湖泊以及環繞的山脈如同一座天然的圓形劇場，景色十分壯麗。像北京和成都一樣，這座城市中遍布著高大的樹木，許多寺廟和會館的五彩屋頂在其中閃閃發光。遠處的雙塔格外優雅，標誌著昔日緬甸朝貢使者聚集的地方——大象的棚舍就在英國領事館附近，現在那裡正在建造一所新學校。視線越過廣闊的湖面，能看到遠方的山脈，這些山脈形成了長江流域與雲南湖盆地的分水嶺，而東部湖泊的水則最終匯入廣東的西江。
在這個季節，雲層變幻莫測，四周經常有局部的小雨，夜幕降臨時，東方的彩虹常常在日落之前出現。然而，漫步於城市中的體驗就不那麼愉快了。城市的街道狹窄，商店異常狹小，貨物非常有限，看起來更像是集市上的攤位，只不過是用土坯磚建成，屋頂低矮，我甚至無法站直。當地的居民看起來衣著得體，吃得飽足，但男性似乎大部分時間都在用過長的竹製煙管抽煙。令人驚訝的是，外國人在街上幾乎不會引起任何注意，這裡的居民對外來者似乎早已習以為常。
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4 ACROSS YUNNAN
I had pictured Yunnan-fu as a sort of Geneva, with a beautiful lake washing its quays; but here is another disillusion ;—unless you ascend an eminence you see no lake at all; its shores are five miles distant from the city walls and you have to cross five miles of intervening paddyfields to reach it : to do this occupies about three hours in the big clumsy sampans which carry on communication with the lake ports by means of the deep winding creeks that intersect the marshy plain, at whose north-east corner the city is built. The water may originally have come up to the walls, for the lake is now receding, as the monsoon rains bring down yearly countless tons of detritus, and new land is being constantly endyked and reclaimed by the industrious Chinese. The marsh has been persistently drained by canals, the high embankments of which, planted with trees, are a pleasing feature in the landscape. By these creeks firewood, stone, lime, and vegetable produce are brought right up to the city gates from the mountainous western shore, and the refuse carried off. Outside the South Gate, in what was then a desolate region, mostly covered with ruins of the mud-walled houses of the country, the ground was being laid out for the new French railway station ;—and this quarter, at that time still in ruins from the late Civil War, promised to be ere long the centre of a large population and of the activity attending the railway terminus of a great trunk line. We knew that the railway had been authorised, but we were not a little surprised to see the works on the embankment, and on the station, in full swing, and a large yamén as the residence of the ** Chef de Section ” and his staffi,—some twenty Frenchmen all told.
我原本將雲南府（Yunnan-fu）想像成一個類似日內瓦的地方，擁有美麗的湖泊拍打著碼頭，但這又是一個幻滅的時刻——除非你爬上一個高地，否則你根本看不到湖泊。湖岸距城牆有五英里遠，必須穿過這五英里的稻田才能到達湖邊。要做到這一點，需要花約三個小時，坐在那些笨重的舢板上，沿著縱橫交錯的蜿蜒水道行駛，這些水道將沼澤地區與湖港連接，而城市正建於這片沼澤平原的東北角。
或許這片水域最初曾經達到城牆邊緣，但如今湖水正在逐漸退縮。每年的季風帶來無數噸的風化物，新土地不斷被開墾，勤勞的中國人圍堤造田。沼澤地被不斷地通過運河排水，這些運河的高堤上種滿了樹木，成為景觀中的一個愉悅元素。通過這些水道，從西部山區的湖岸將柴火、石料、石灰和蔬菜運輸到城門口，同時將城市的垃圾運走。
在南門外，一片荒蕪的地區，主要覆蓋著泥牆房屋的廢墟，這片土地正在為新的法國鐵路站做準備——這個區域當時仍處於最近內戰的廢墟中，但很快便會成為一個擁有大量人口和繁忙活動的中心，鐵路幹線的終點站就在這裡。我們知道這條鐵路已經得到批准，但我們還是對看到堤防和車站的建設已經如火如荼地進行感到驚訝，並且一個大衙門也已建成，作為“段長”（Chef de Section）及其團隊的住所——總共約有二十名法國人。
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66 ACROSS YUNNAN
The whole line from Lao-kai to Yunnan, a distance of about 300 miles, had been let out in lots to contractors who tendered for the work. These “entrepreneurs ’’ were mostly Italians, who had had experience of similar work in Eastern Kurope and Africa, and who employed Chinese labourers at the rate of $1 each every four days. There were said to be altogether 1,000 Italians and 10,000 coolies then (1904) at work on the line. Everything in these parts appeared to be going on smoothly, but below Méng-tse, where the ascent is made from the Red River valley to the plateau (a rise of some 3,000 feet), the line being carried up by the valley of an affluent of the Red River, called the Nam-ti, difficulties had arisen and the work there was temporarily at a standstill. This was in consequence of the deadly malaria, due to what the Chinese call the Chang-ch‘l, or poisonous air, which seems to infest all the descents from the Yunnan plateau to the valleys at its feet, especially on its southern and western borders. In the summer all employed, Italians and natives, appear to have been seized with the malaria and to have had to quit the valley, large numbers having succumbed to this fatal fever. Henceforward probably work in the Nam-ti valley will only be carried on in the winter. Notwithstanding these inevitable delays the French superintendents were confident of having trains running to Yunnan-fu in four years’ time. In accordance with their contract with the railway company, the Government of Indo-China were under penalty to complete the line through French territory in 1905, i.e., from Hanoi to Lao-kai, by which time the cuttings and embankments between Lao-kai and Yunnan-fu would be ready to receive their rails and material. The revolution that the accomplishment of this boldlyconceived work will effect in stagnant Yunnan is inconceivable,—besides the boon conferred upon the European residents of the surrounding tropical regions by making this unrivalled sanatorium accessible by steam to the outer world.
從老街（Lao-kai）到雲南府的整條鐵路線，約300英里，已經分段承包給了投標的承包商們。這些“企業家”大多是意大利人，他們曾在東歐和非洲進行過類似的工程，並以每四天1美元的工資雇用了中國勞工。據說當時（1904年）共有1,000名意大利人和10,000名苦力在這條鐵路上工作。這段鐵路的施工進展順利，但在蒙自（Méng-tse）以南的地區，當鐵路從紅河谷地上升到雲南高原時（上升約3,000英尺），沿著紅河支流南汀河（Nam-ti）的谷地修築的部分遇到了困難，工程暫時停滯不前。
問題的根源在於致命的瘧疾，這種瘧疾源於中國人所說的“瘴氣”（Chang-ch‘i），似乎在所有從雲南高原下降至谷底的地區都存在，尤其是在南部和西部邊界的山區。在夏季，所有參與施工的意大利人和本地工人都感染了瘧疾，必須撤出谷地，大量人員因此喪命。今後，南汀河谷的工程可能只能在冬季進行。儘管有這些不可避免的延誤，法國的監工仍然自信能夠在四年內讓火車通往雲南府。
根據與鐵路公司的合同，法屬印度支那政府有義務在1905年之前完成法國境內的鐵路段，即從河內到老街的部分。到那時，老街至雲南府之間的切割和堤防工程將準備好鋪設軌道和材料。這項大膽構想的工程一旦完成，對於封閉停滯的雲南將帶來無法想像的變革——此外，它還將為居住在周邊熱帶地區的歐洲人提供極大的便利，使這片無與倫比的療養地通過蒸汽動力與外界聯繫起來。