The Tali District of Western Yunnan

Abstract

N the far south-west of China, among the tangled mountains of western Yunnan, there is a long blue lake lying at the foot of snow-topped mountains, between them a strip of fertile rice land. This is the district of Tali, just north of the Burma Road. The road actually passes through Siakwan, which is the subsidiary township of the Tali district, and a short branch connects the city of Tali 10 miles farther up the lake. The topographical features of this region are sharply defined: the plain, narrow and flat but intensely fertile and closely cultivated for rice; the lake, Erh Hai, which forms the eastern boundary of the district; and lastly the massive wall of the Ts'ang Shan range, one of the highest in Yunnan proper, which shuts off the plain from the west. Beyond the lake to the east and south there are other lower ranges which are in fact the watersheds of the Yangtze, Red river (Yuan Kiang), and Mekong. The Red river, which flows out at Haiphong in Indo-China, actually rises in these southern ranges. The Erh Hai, the Ear Lake, fed by the northern Erh river, drains by way of the southern lower Erh into the Yangpi, which is a tributary of the Mekong, and the Tali district is thus within the basin of the latter river. This is so unexpected, in view of the configuration of the ranges in this area, that many maps still show Erh Hai as draining into the Red river. When the height of Ts'ang Shan to the west compared with the relative insignificance of the ranges east of the lake is considered this would indeed appear to be the natural course of the river. In fact the lower Erh breaks out round the southern end of the Ts'ang Shan range through a very narrow gorge called Lung Wei Kuan, the Dragon's Tail Pass, where the stream at one point is actually bridged by a huge boulder wedged between cliffs. This gap has recently been widened to permit the construction of the Burma Road, which follows the line of this gorge and thus avoids a crossing of the Ts'ang Shan range. These mountains, although they attain 14,000 feet, and are thus the highest for many miles in any direction, are not a watershed of any importance. They divide the Erh Hai from the Yangpi river. Across the lake the low eastern mountain is the watershed of the Yangtze and Mekong, one of the main divides in south-eastern Asia. I do not know whether the geological cause of this anomaly has been ascertained, but an untrained observer may remark that whereas all the ranges east and south of the lake are limestone formations, Ts'ang Shan, alone among the mountains east of the Salween, is granite. The exceptionally precipitous character of its slopes, particularly on the western side, suggests that it repre? sents an upheaval of underlying rock which has broken through the lime? stone cover of the Yunnan plateau. The character of the forest which covers the upper part of the mountain is also different from that found on the nearest mountain of comparable height on the eastern side of the lake, the 11,000-foot Chi Tsu Shan, which is covered with chestnut woods but has few rhodo-