Kiangsi

KIANGSI, a province in the heart of China, lying within the South China highlands but drained to and linked up with the Lower Yang-tze valley. It is formed essentially of the basin of the Kan river with whose watershed the provincial boundaries for the most part coincide. As the life of Kiangsi is based on a tributary basin to the south of the arterial line of the Yang-tze, its position and role are analogous to those of Hunan rather than of Hupeh or Kiangsu, great focal provinces lying astride the Yang-tze valley proper. Like Hunan it is a corridor province, providing the chief alternative route across the South China high lands from the Lower Yang-tze valley to the Canton delta, the focus of South China. The Kiangsi route leading over the water shed by the Mei-ling pass was that followed by early British embassies, those of Macartney in 1793 and Amherst in 1816 on their journey overland between Canton and Peking Communi cating with the Yang-tze valley mid-way in its course between the central (Hupeh) basin and the delta, Kiangsi is orientated partly to the one and partly to the other. Although formerly linked with Anhwei and Kiangsu to constitute the old province of Kiangnan, it is commercially tributary to Hankow rather than to Shanghai.

Kiangsi is made up of a succession of ridges and troughs trend ing N.E.—S.W. characteristic of the eastern half of the South China highlands. These, running diagonally across it, give the province a frame which, though mountainous, is pierced by numerous gaps giving comparatively easy communication with adjoining prov inces. From Fukien alone is Kiangsi separated by a continuous mountain system. The N.E.—S.W. ridges which enter Kiangsi die down, however, along the axis of the province to leave two basin like areas, an upper and a lower. The upper basin collects the headstreams of the Kan at the confluence of which stands Kan chow, the focus of the basin and the second city of the province. The lower basin, much the larger of the two, forms an extensive lowland plain sloping towards the Po-yang lake through which the drainage of the province passes to the Yang-tze. The lake

has undergone extensive sedimentation and a ring of important towns, once on its shores, is now separated from it by wide stretches of fertile alluvium. The focus of this lowland plain and the capital of the province is the large city of Nanchang, situated on the Kan at the point where it once emptied into the lake, now over 3o miles away.

Kiangsi cultivates the crops characteristic of the Yang-tze basin. Rice is grown throughout the province but especially in the alluvial soils bordering the Po-yang lake. It is one of the four provinces of China having a surplus production. This is collected at Nanchang from both the Po-yang plain and the upper valleys and sent to Wuhu, the great rice market of the Yang-tze valley. Of the other crops entering commerce, both sugar and tea have declined in importance. Sugar cultivation has suffered from Japa nese competition and is now practically confined to the upper valleys. The production of tea, grown on the hill-slopes towards the Hupeh border and collected at Kiukiang, has declined with the general decay of the China tea trade. Kiangsi teas are now mainly green teas, destined for export to Russia. There is some tobacco production to the east of the lake and this may increase in the future. Like the rest of the Yang-tze valley, Kiangsi grows for subsistence crops in addition to the rice of summer, temperate cereals and legumes such as wheat and beans during the winter half-year. The population of the province according to the Post Office estimate of 1923 is over 24 millions giving the high density of 352 to the square mile. Communications are at present almost entirely limited to navigation on the Po-yang lake and the lower part of the Kan river system and to roads. The only railway is a short line linking Nanchang with Kiu-kiang on the Yang-tze.