Gleanings from fifty years in China . Yangtseduring the romantic period of the wars of the ThreeKingdoms which ushered in the fall of the great Handynasty in the third century of our era. All this regionis rich in song and story. Below this spot we seeto-day, as fresh as it issued from the hands of themasons of old, the extraordinary relic known as M6ng-liangs ladder—a series of squared holes chiselled intothe hard limestone cliff, here about 500 feet vertical,each hole fourteen inches in diameter and abouttwo feet in depth, into which were inserted woodenbeams up which M^ng-liangs soldiers ei
Gleanings from fifty years in China . Yangtseduring the romantic period of the wars of the ThreeKingdoms which ushered in the fall of the great Handynasty in the third century of our era. All this regionis rich in song and story. Below this spot we seeto-day, as fresh as it issued from the hands of themasons of old, the extraordinary relic known as M6ng-liangs ladder—a series of squared holes chiselled intothe hard limestone cliff, here about 500 feet vertical,each hole fourteen inches in diameter and abouttwo feet in depth, into which were inserted woodenbeams up which M^ng-liangs soldiers either ascendedfor attack or descended to procure water—it isnot positively known which. The last emperor of theHans, Liu-peh, was the builder of the Peh-ti-cheng,or White Emperors City, so called after its supposedCelestial founder and patron, a beautiful temple in whosehonour survives to this day. Its wooded terracescommand a striking view of the gorge down stream, withits highest cliff towering up some 3,000 feet, as also of the. THE DANGERS OF THE UPPER YANGTSE 147 picturesque city of Kwei-fu built on the left bank of thelake-like reach three miles above. We passed a restless night, rocked in the swell of therapid and disturbed by the roar of the whirlpools whichincreased in violence as the river continued to swell involume with the still-rising freshets, the total rise in thenight being about ten feet, necessitating constant shiftingof the boats moorings. At daylight the next morningwe crossed over in the lifeboat to the left bank, andclimbed up the steep rock-bank to the New road. This isa road built by a former Viceroy in the fifteenth year ofKwangshii ( 1888), from Kwei-fu westwards to theHupeh frontier, a distance of about fifty miles, where,traversing the gorges, the road is carried by a gallery cutin the limestone cliffs and fenced by a low stone the road been carried on farther, eighty miles toIchang, it would have been of inestimable value to t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectchinade, bookyear1910
