Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/101

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THROUGH THE YANG-TSZE GORGES.

importance of Ichang lies in its being the port of transhipment between the coast and central China on the one hand, and the wide regions of Ssŭch'uan and Yün-nan on the other. "Here the results of modern invention in the shape of steel twin-screw steamers of over 1000 tons burden give place to medieval methods of transport as typified by the wooden junk with an average carrying capacity of 45 tons: here marine insurance begins and ends." Here, too, the traveller will find a faint echo of the industrial activity of Hankow in the shape of a factory for the manufacture of cotton cloth