Carl Crow - A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai

16. Swallowing Like Whales, Nibbling Like Silkworms

16 Swallowing Like Whales, Nibbling Like Silkworms Chαir coolies complain about my increasing weight Up the Yangtze: Dolphins,Alligators and Men Overboard Since 1911 Crow had trave1ed extensive1y and regu1arly throughout China but it was not unti1 1935 that he ventured west and travelled to Sichuan, the one part of the country he had not yet seen. He was combining business with p1easure, seeing clients as well as hoping to visit the famous Yangtze Gorges. Crow p1aced adverts for his clients in 10ca1 and provincia1 newspapers across the country and this gave him the necessary excuses to go trave1ing and rub his “constant itch to exp10re every part of China."1 These 甘ips were really exchanges of information, with Crow eager to gain some 10ca1 flavor whi1e the provincia1 newspaper owners were eager for news from Shanghai. 的 us叫 with Carl, what shou1d have been a routine journey to Sichuan tumed into a more informative trip than he cou1d have hoped for. In the mid1930s Sichuan was sti1l considered hope1ess1y remote. The in1and 甘eaty port of Yichang2 in Hubei, the “Gateway ofthe Gorges," was 1,000 miles from Shanghai whi1e steam navigation went on1y as far as Chongqing, a further 410 mi1es upriver from the rapids at Yichang through the famous Three Gorges. Crow trave1ed by Yangtze River Steamer from Shanghai with Yangtze white do1phins dipping and di討ng in the boat's wake. The steamer departed in the 1ate aftemoon, 194 CARL CROW - A TOUGH OLD CHINA HAND passing Zhenjiang,3 a city noted for the quality and the all-pervasive smell of its locally-produced vinegar, in Jiangsu, at the junction ofthe Grand Canal with the Chang River, and arrived in Nanjing a day later. Though the new rail service was only an ovemight joumey, Crow considered the standard of hotels in Nanjing so poor he prefe叮ed to stay on the steamer. From Nanjing it was a further fourday joumey up-river through the commercial center ofWuhu, the tea-producing town of Kiukiang and Anking4 with its famous wind moving pagoda before a叮iving at Hankow and the junction of the Yellow and the Yangtze Rivers. Along with the famous white dolphins, Crow also glimpsed the miniature Yangtze alligators; and he also experienced the famously volatile currents, known as chow chow waters by the ship captains, north of Anking.5 Between Shanghai and Hankow, the Yangtze was broad and deep and in the summer season, when the river was bulging with melting snow waters from Tib仗， it was navigable by ocean-going vessels. However, above Hankow the Yangtze changed its nature considerably. The so-called middle Yangtze, between Hankow and Yichang, became narrow, crooked, shallow and far harder to navigate which meant that passengers had to transfer to smaller passenger boats for the remainder of the joumey which could only be undertaken during daylight hours as by night the river was simply too treacherous. Hankow to Yichang was a voyage of 400 miles and to01至 longer than the 600 miles from Shanghai to Hankow. At Yichang the middle Yangtze became the upper Yangtze and a further transfer to an even smaller passenger boat was required to proceed and complete the 410 miles to Chongqing. The small vessels that traversed the Yangtze between Yichang and Chongqing were highly powered in proportion to their size to deal with the swift chuming currents and rapids. It was still often the case that no amount of engine power was of use and the boat had to be steered through the Gorges and ominously named spots like the “Little Orphan Channel." This involved towlines being pulled by several hundred Sichuan peasants, or trackers, who dragged the boat by walking along narrow paths cut into the cliffface on either side of the to訂ent below. The upper Yangtze was at that time known as a "graveyard for ships" and, according to Crow, carried the highest maritime insurance rate in the world. As Crow's ship inched up through the Gorges, he could see the funnels of sunken s SWALLOWING LIKE WHALE 日， NIBBLING LIKE SILKWORMS 195 that in the tim巳 it took to get to Chongqing by 刮目mer he could have sail巳d to Tokyo, done a w巳仗's busin巳ss and retumed to Shanghai or could have traveled to Singapore, Manila or Moscow and back in th巳 same tJme. The trip was a long on巳 but not uneventful. As we11 as...