Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/42

at length solved at the close of the nineteenth century, access being then given to the towns of Nanning, Sin-chou and, above all, Wu-chou, which, lying at the borders of the provinces Kwan-tung and Kwan-si, is the chief tradal emporium of all the Si-kiang's branches and tributaries.

As the course of China's three great rivers is from west to east, broadly speaking, and as their valleys occupy nearly the whole of the eighteen provinces, it may be inferred that China proper constitutes the Pacific slope of the Central Asian plateau. There is, however, a fourth group of rivers in the southwest of the Empire, which run in a southeasterly or due southerly direction, and have interest as forming the routes of communication between that part of China and the countries on the south, namely, Burmah, Siam, and Tonquin. These rivers are the Salween, the Meikong, and the Sonka (Red River). The Salween and the Meikong, rising in the Thibetan mountains, run in more or less parallel courses, the former into Burmah, the latter into Siam, and the Red River, a comparatively small body of water, flows from Yunnan into the Gulf of Tonquin, forming the chief tradal route between southern China and France's recently acquired possessions in Annam. If the direction of these rivers be considered, it will be understood that though the main portion of the eighteen provinces slopes eastward towards the Pacific Ocean, the