By \VALTER J. KAHLER

THE TRANSCONTINENTAL ROUTES OF ASIA

THE o~ ~IL!t~O~

As early 6S one hundred years before theChristian era, one of the first of those greattranscontincntal routes developed whichtraverse the wbole Asiatic continent fromCIl8t to west. These were tho old silk roodswhich conneeted "Sera," the distant easterncountry of silk, with the Mediterraneanports.

Two tbousand years before Cbrist, Chinawas already producing silk, a commodity ingreat demand in the countries of the East.What vistas of trade opcned up ~hould

(in tbe vicinity of Mosul), Alexander con­quered Babylon, Susa., and Persepolis.Later on he turned nortbeastward in pursuit.of Darius. He marched via Hecatompyloll(DlI.mghan) to Meshed and thence made adetour t.hrough soutbern Afghanistan. Intbe middle of tbe winter of 330 B.C. becrossed the snowed.up pas.'ICS (4,000 to 5,000meters higb) of the Hindu Kusb range. Inthe following years be was occupied withthe conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana.

In the spring of 326 B.C., Alexanderundertook a campaign against India, st.an­ing from Kabul witb an army of 120,000men. After crossing the Punjab, he bad aHeet built at Hydaspes and sailed witb itdown tho Indus River till be reached thoIndian Ocean. ]<'rom here he sent one partof his troops by ship up tbe Persian Gulf,while he himself led the main body of hisarmy through the desert of southern PClllia.Three quarters of his army succumbed totho rigors of these marches, dying of heat,privation, and lack of water.

After rejoining bis fleet at Susa, Alexandermade bis triumphal entry into Babylon inthe 8pring of 323 B.C. ShortJy afterwardshe suddenly feU ill with a fever after abanquet. A few days later he died. Hewas then barely thirty-three years old. Theexpedition, during which this great militaryleader covered a distance of at least 15,000kilometers, took eight whole years.

THE first condition for the economicdevelopment of a country and theobtaining of markets for its products

is the presence of routes of communication.] n the construction of these, three factorshave to be taken into account: first, thegeographical nature of the terrain and itsobstacles, such n,,1 difficult mountain passes,precipitous river valleys, arid deserts, etc;:<ccondly, the presence of oases or waterholes to be uSt,'<! as resting places; andthirdly, political conditions in the regionsthrough which the road is to pass.

The principal features which give Asia.its characteristic appeara.nce are the flatnorthern steppes of Siberia, the steppes andde.'lert.s in Western and Central A.sia, andt.he verdant tropical &reIl8 of the southcomprising India, Burma, Thailand, andfndo·China. This tropical region is sepa·rat.ed from Turkestan and Mongolia by themountain wall of the Rindu KushfPamir/Himalaya massif and by the Tibetan pili.'teau.

These topographical features have deter.mined the movements of the great migra.tions of peoples in tbeir search for fertileareas as well as tbe direction of the trans­continental caravan roads. Three principalroutes evolved: (1) the trans·Siberian route;(2) the old silk roads leading through ChineseTurkestan; and (3) the southern route viaIran/Baluchistan/India and the Burma Road.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S CAMPAION

Tho earliest information about CentralABill. camo to us through the expedition ofAlexander the Great to India. 2,274 yearsago he advanced to tbe Pamir plateau andthence across tbe Ox-us (Amu Darya) Riveras far as Maracanda (Samarkand). Throughhim, Gr<.-'6k coins and Greek art were in­t,roduced to Bactria (Balkh) and westerulndia.

This journey was tartoo early in 313 B.C.with the campaign against Darius, whicbwas launched from Egypt. After defeatingt.llC army of the Pl'rsian King at Gaugamela

Tht: Ullihar. "./,,, 1..". t",,,',',,f 0"(;""11,1 from r,,;roto Shu/lft1l. tell" tilt: ;dory of 'he gnlllt"",,,.A,jr, rUIII<..from AI<.£lwder II/(' Ureal 10 1',e8e1l1 ,;"',.".

THE TRA.NSCONTDH.XTAL ROUTES 010' ASIA

DeW markets in the West be found for thishighly prized product!

In tho second century RC. the empcrorgof the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.),under whom 'hina experienced her mostspectacular rise. had expanded the ChineseEmpire in the wcst almost as far as LakeLob Nor. The nt'ighboring rt1gion of ea::lternTurkestan (now the province of Sinkiang)wa inhabit~d by the Hiungnu or Huns, II.

restless, predatory nomad tribe wbich con·stantly menaced China's borders ill the WClltand in the north.

It remained for Hsin. Wu Ti (140.87 B.C.),tbe grcate.'lt emperor of the Han dynasty,to conlitruct the fir t caravan road to thecount,ries of the West. Emperor Wu Tifirst sent Geneml Chang Kien with anembassy to the Yue Chili (the Tokhars)­who bad settled in Tn Yuan (now the provoinces of Fergann. and Sama.rkand) after theBuns had driven them westward-in orderto establish relations with these people andconclude n. treaty with them against theHuns. In 126 B. -'. Chang Kien returned tohi country without having achieved anyconcrete results, but bringing with him 0.

great deal of valuable information. He gavean account to the Emperor about the foreignpeoples in Turkestan, the thoroughbredhorses of Fergana, tbe caravan roads toyria, Rml about the mighty Roman Empire

whose influence extended at that time afar as the Caspian Sea.

After scvt'ral otht'r expeditions sent 01ltby Emperor Wu Ti had also endpd in fa.ilurf',Ho Kiu.ping, n. young, cn('rgetic lead('r,managt'd to rt'ach the capital of Fergana\\;th an army of 60.000 mcn consi. ting ofinfantry and cavalry. At the same tim('.he succeeded in driving the Huns toward til£'nort,h and in seizing the Tarim basin forChina. Thus the great t ob tael hadbeen removed, and trade connection wit IIthe eastern provinces of thl' Roman Empirecould at last be established.

For the safeguarding of the new traderoutes, fortified military posts, watchtowers.relay stations .lor horses, in liS, and customsstations, were erected along the roads 8 t

regular intervals. Transports were gULLrde Iby mounted patrols, and mail was forwardedb) mounted couriers.

In 114 B.C, tho first carvan started onits way to the west, From that time on­ward, every month wituesst."<! the departur!'of long columns of donkeys, pack hor;;e , oxcarts, and camels ladcn with silk, cotton,tortoise sbell, spices, pearls, an.1 oth rvaluable goods for the ports of the Mediter­ranean, They rcturnt'd to 'hina with amber.coral~, woollen cloth, wine, grape~, drug,:,legumes, and glass of "llrioU;l color". Thustwo thousand YClll'S ago the "~ilk roads'

Alexander the "realSilk ReGaSMarCO PoIO'S Dou e ,? ,. I SC'lfoen·Hoaro Expt'O':'OIl ,0 t ••Q32AUlt>cr', Qoue '03'- '9 ~ 78:lunJcnes

Trans-Asiatic Routes

In vi w of the llJ1l1~t1l\lIy lorg(' number of 1'13('0 nnmes mentioned in the lIrtide, tho mup contl\in •.(or reu Ons o( clarity, only the most important onC!!

250 THE XXth CENTURY

developed, of which some sections, graduallyfoUowing the trend of motorization. are stilltI:-led today.

SKlRTINli THE DESEIIT

The Central Asiatic route forks at Tun­hwang, a town lying in the western portionof present-day Kansu Province. The YuMen just behind this town is a na.rrow gorgein the rocky mountains which separateC&8tern Turkestan from China. This gateowes its name to the yu (nephrite, jasper,or jade) found in the vicinity of Khotan inthe rubble of the mountain streams, andtransported through this rock gate sincetime immemorial. At this gate and at theYang gate to the south of it were the twocustoms stations at the end of the GreatWall.

The heart of eastern Turkestan is formedbv the Takla Makan Desert with the Tarimbasin. It is encircled by three high moun­tain rangc8: ill the north by the Tien Shan,in the west by the Pamir plateau, whoseS.OOO.meter-high mountain walls drop pre­cipitously toward the deep Tarim basin, andin the south by the Kunlun Mountains.

The course of the roads was necessarilydetermined by the presence of oasetl servingas watering and resting places for man andbmlSt.. The South Road led ~outh of thedesert past Lake Lob Nor and ,-ill. the oasesof CharklikjCherchenjKhotan and Yarkandto Kashgar. The North Road followed II

course leading via Loulan and along theTarim Hivcr via Kurla, Kucha., and Aksuat the foot of the Tien Shan range to Kash­gar. The latter road, being the shorter one,was preferred. 1t is still in use today,although traffic now branches off from Anhsitoward the north via Rami, Turfan, I\ndKarachar.

This northern branch bad alreadv devel­oped llhortly after 270 A.D., although it didnot touch Rami then. ThiEl wa~ due to thesingular circumstance that the Tarim Rh-erfor some unknown renson suddenlv 8hiftedits bed toward the south. The 'ri\'er nolonger debouched into Lake Lob Nor butformed a new lake, Karako Shun, to theI'outhwest of the Lob Nor. In consequence,the Takla Makall Desert meanwhile grewconsiderably larger. The drying up of thewater simultaneously spelled the doom ofthe old commercial and garril;On town ofLoulan on the western shore of Lake Lob~or. In 1273 Marco Polo pa&lCd by aLittle to the south without beiua aware of

·LOulan. It was left for Rven Hedin duringhis expedition into the Takla Makan Desertin 1900 tOl'rediseover this ancient townburied in the sand. Among the mostvaluable discoveries made here bv theSwedish explorer were-apart from' orna­mental objects, old coins, wood carvings,bronze spoons, and pieces of woollen clothwith Hellenic patterns-old ChinefIC writingson wood, silk, and paper. They are beLicTCdto date from the year 200 A.D.

MOUNT.o\lNS

The highest mountain 'barrier which hadto be surmounted was the Pamir plateau,

'which is frequently covered with deep snow:.The broad valley basins of this desert lie atan altitude of between 3,.300 and 4,000meters, while the surrounding peaks rise tomore than 7,000 meters. But this mountain,wall also po8llC8SC8 gates through which theregions of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, andIndus Rivers can be reached.

From Kashgar there were three routes tothe west. The northem one, which is stillin use today, leads via. the Terek DawanIlass (3,900 meters). in the Alai Mounta.in8,and the towns of Fergana to Samarkand.The second route also crosses the Pamirplateau across the Terek Dawan P808ll; afterfollowing the course of the Surkhan River,a tributary of the Aml1 Darva, for BOrnedistance ii joins the road frOnl Samarkandnort,h of Balkh. The third route fromYnrkand reaches Balkh south of the Pamil'll.

India can be reached by a route acl'Oll8the glacier.covered heights of the Karakoramrange to LadakJ) and Kashmir, and thenceover Peshawar to the' Ganges, or along theIndus to the ports of Barbaricum and Hary­gaza near Karachi on the Indian Ocean.This road is also still in use tod,a.y duringthe months from July to &tober whenYarkand caravans with yaks travel along i.tcalTying chiefly yak.hair rugs and hashishfrom Turkestan to India. Many a packanimal, however, is lost on tillS journey,which involves weeks of exhausting traveling'over the difficult and st.ecp pa.sses of theKarakoram Mountains (the Karakoram pa88i8 5,574 meters high).

Traffic in the region of the Amu Dary..with Balkh-or Bactra, as it was thenknown-as the chief juncture and tradingcenter was especially brisk. }'rom heremerchandise was transported over the p&888lIof the Hindu Kush to Kabul, from whereit was sent on to Alexandria Arakhoton

THE TRANSCONTTNl-:NTAL ROL~rES OF ASIA

(Kandahar) or through the Khyber Pass toParusapura (pt"8hawar). From Bactra, theancient Persian imperial road led westwardYia Antiochia, Margiana (Merv), and Meshedto 8ecatompylo~, the capital of the ParthianllFurther statiollS along the road to the.Mediterranean ports were Ragae noar Te·heran, Ecbatana (Hamadan), and Seleucia(Bagdad). On the south road leading viaKandahar, Carmana (Kerman), Persepoli".and SUM, good. from India were principall~'

transported.

In the old Phoenician cOlUlllCrcial tow"".. new industry began to flourillh as II resultof the silk trade. At Antioch, Tyre, Sidon.and Beirut thc lSilk was woven intuVariOU8 kinds of material. which Pho('nicilluships carried to Rome where the valuablelIIaterials always found eager buyer!!.

HUNS

A hundred and twenty yeurs had pMlled~ill('C the opening of the silk roads whenthe Hiungnu again invaded the Tarim basinand drove out the Chinese. This inter·tUJltion of trade lasted fifty.six yearll tillGeneral Pan Chau put an end to the rule ofthe Hiungnu. He crossed the pa.~'les of thePamirs, reached the Caspian Sea in tho year95 A. D., and restored trading connection....with the West. A quarter of a centurylater, however. China lo!!t thc Tarim basinfor ~ood. By 150 A.D. all traffic had cea~l.

Dirt.'Ct trading relatiolls between Chinll andthe Roman F;mpire had lusted for mort-'than two hundred and forty .velll'S (114 B.( '.to 127 A.D.).

Those evcntl:! go to Mhow that the factor"of political securit.y nnd int.ernntionl\l co'operation plllY a far grt'uter role in UIl'maintenance of tmnscontinelltal roads thantechnical obstacle!! such as hi(lh mountainsalltl difficult ri\'er crossings. History showsthat the creation of such long-distanceroutt"H was undertaken chiefly on the initia·tivl' of strong empires which desired toexpand tht1ir trade. This was the case in.-.sill at the time when the borders of Chinaand the Roman Empire almost met. Theconnt'cting link between these two greatpowt'rs was provided by the Parthians, whowere the intermediaries of trade and for.wardttd the mercha.ndise through Persia.Trade and traffic on the old routes ex­perionced a revival in the thirt.eenth centurywhen Kublai Khan ruled OVel' the greaterpart of Asia. Weaker states, 011 the otherhand, es()('(:iaUy thoSt' wedgL'<I in between

251

two stron~er ones, intentionally neglect tobuild traffic arteries in order to ma.ke it thoharder for their neigh bors to invade theirt~rritory. Other countries, again, closetheir borders hennetically towllrd the outerworld in order to make it impossible forforeign agents to poke around for oil, eonl.minerals, etc., as the presence of such richetlgenerally l'ro,rides great powers with thofir!:!t incentive to invade II. weaker country.

nn: TR..4.V.:LS 01' MARCO l'OLO

The Huns undertook several ('(JllIssalmilitary C'i\iilpaigns in the course of theirhistory. I n the third century thc.v "u b­jected the Chinese, and in the fourth thcyO\-errun all of weak-rn Asia. In 37:) A.D.they lldvanced IHI far as Hungary. nndunder the learler!\hip of Attila they l'lpreaclt.error throughollt Europe. "::ven moredevastating was the second invasion of thonOlllllds under (,~~iJ'l_Khan who explllldedthe power of the 1tfOrlgo s from the Ea.~t

China Sea to tho borders of Europe a.ndunited the largest Asiatic empire in hi:itory.The armies of this great conqueror ter­rorized Syria, Turkey, and Poland; iII I t·uthey even nd"anced a." far as Silesiu. I:i ill­tor)' witne~ u repet,ition of this spf'Ctnclcone century later when the warriorI'! of'!'amerh!!!e rava,ged the towns of Ml·.~0J10t.lI­

Olln and of the u.,\"antinc (·oast.

In the floeond ha.If of the thirteenth eOIl­

tury Genghis Khan's grundsou, Ku biniKhan endeavored to consolidate t.hi .. t,ht'lgrell 'est empire which the world had eVt~r

seen. He WIlS a peaceful ruler, toll'rant inreligiOllllll1atters and a patron of the SI·lt'nCC_".Undcr hi8 l'Oign tl'anscontincntlll trrLd(~ \xl.tween Europe and China also ('xpt-'ril'lIf'I>c1 It

new rl'Yival.

Aftl-'r two papal em bassit's had SUlT(,{'(.lt'tlin 1246 nud 1253 in reaching Karakorum.then the capital of tho Mongol om pire inthe Gobi Desert, it was the fanlollll journeyof the brothers Nicolo and Matteo Polo andof Nicolo's Bon Marco which brought newinformlltion about the countries of the "'arBast to Venice.

Tho three Pol08 were the first Europeansto have crossed the continent of Asia in itt!whole lengt,h: the barren steppe area of thoNear East, tho fertile country of FerganR.and the Pamir plateau covered with thebones of animals which 8uccnmlJed in thiBwilderness. They traveled along tho olelsilk road on the southern fringe of tbeTakla Makan Det1ert and tra\'ersed the KIlndy

25! THE XXth CENTURY

billows of the Gobi Desert till they reachedChina., tho la,nd of silk. This journey fromits starting place at Ayas on the Gul£ ofAl ·xamlretta. to Peking took four yearsincluding two stopl:l of a. year each at Fergllna.and I(ancbow.

Young Marco enjoyed the special favor ofKublai Khan. He was appointed governorof a province, find in the course often yearl:l he made extensive tours of inspec­tion in the va,rious part~ of the Chinese Em.piro on behalf of the Khan.

In 12U2, after a. sojourn of seventeenyears in Mongolia and China, the Polobrothers returned by ship via Indo-China,Sumatra, Ceylon, and India to Hormuz onthe Persian Gulf. Thence they traveled byland to Trebizond on the Black Sea. In1295. after an absence of twenty-four years,they finally arrived back in their nativecity of Vewce.

The reports of his experiences whichyoung Polo wrote down during the time ofbis impri"onment at Genoa. in 129 /fJUBOemed so incrClliblo to the Venetians thatho WllS given tJlO nickname of "MarcoMiUione," because in thoir opinion he ex·aggemted c\'erything a, million times. :\[areoPolo's many obl:lcn'ations included someregarding the tl'lldo routes. lIe mentionedtho !>risk t ('acle in tho port of Hormuz (BandarAbbas) on the Pen;ian Gulf. He de"criucuthe trange hip>!, constructed without nails,wbich brollght Kashmir shawls gold brocade,precious stonrs, ivory, alld other rare ar­ticles from Asia l\nd Africa und loadedUlOroughbred horses for Jlldia. With grratadmiration Marco described the well­organized courier system already existing atthat time in China. a.nd the thousands ofrelay stations to provide fre::>h and restedhorses for the dispatc'h riders, so that it waspossible -"0 carry urgent mail four to fivohundred kilometers in one day and as lllallYkilometers at night.

TilE CTTnOEN EXPEDITIOX

WllOn after the death of Kublai KIlnntoward the end of tho thirteenth centllry the~'longol Empire broke up into a number ofautollolllOll1:\ states, tran. contillontul tralliebetween Europe and the 1'"ar Ellst was dis­rupt.cd again. Not until recent times didan expcdition with modern equipment SIlC·

ceed in establishing a lIew record by crossingthe whole of the Asiatic continent froUlBeirut to Peking with a motor cara\·an.

In tbi~ case, too, it was not so much thegeographical obst.ncles 118 the political eon­ditions in Central Asia. which placed thegreatest difficulties in the wny of the IInder·taking, It was at first planned to followtho same route which Marco Polo took si:(hundred years before; but the USSR refusedto permit the transit through Soviet Turke­stan. As, on the other hand, t,ho cr Lngof the HimalaYll8 with motorcars appearedtechnieally unfeasible, it was found neco saryto split up the expedition. One group wasto advance from Beirut toward the east.and the other from Peking toward the west.Kashgar in Chinese Tu.rkestan was fixed onas the meeting place.

The leader of th.is expedition, O. M. Hnardt,had already acquired considerable experienooin the organizing and carrying out of motorexpeditions during his crossing of Africafrom Algiers to Capetown in 1924/25. OnApril 4, 1931, the Panlir grOllp of tho ex·pedition st.arted from Beirut wit,h a. staffof scientific collaborators and seven cater·pillar cars especilllly designcd for thisjourney, among them two movie trucks andone rudio, one cooking, llnd one ambulancecar. Tho China group started simultaneou 1yfrom Peking with nine curs.

The first lup of the journoy from Syria.to l'i:llshmir, 5,850 kilometer., was coveredin oighty-one days without /Lny Jll~rticular

clifficlI1ty. Hero, however, the expeditionwas brought t,o /l, hull, by tho might,y mOlln­tain range!; of the Himalayas, the Karako­mm, and the Pamirs, which separate tropical] ndin. from tho Central Asiatic steppe and.dpsert area. In the end, thc dauntlessleader of the expedition, IClloving all thoother cars behind in Kashmir, started fromSrinagar on July 12 with only two cator·pillar trucks.

'I'UUCKS ON MULF: TR.AILS

Tho caravan road to Gilgit had until thenonly been used by mule!; and yaks, but all

the wbole it is fa.irly pussable during thesummcr months. Motorcars, however, arefaced witb almost insurmountable obstaclesby the sharp curves and steep ascents ofthe nurrow mountuin path which in someplaces lends along almost vertical rock waLl~

high nbo\'o roaring mountain streams andrivcrs without bridges, at others O\'cr iC(I­covered or snowed-up pa*,cs, while at somepoints it is blocked by avalanches. Thetwo cars had frequently to be unloaded andkept from slipping down the ice-covered

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X~CENTURY

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TilE TRANSCONTINE~"ALROUTES OF ASIA

i10pes by mE'ans of steel hawsers beld by&he cooli(,!l, or they had to be pulled throughturbulent rivers. Gilgit was tinally reuehE'd~er fifty days of exhausting tran-1. Thoexpedition even IHlcceeded in bringingone eat{'rpillar tractor 1\8 far as 300'kilometerlS frolll ~rinll.gar. All averago ofeight kilol1let~rlS had Leen eow'red per da~',

The higlll'Ht pnlSS to be slIl'rnount,('d for tbefirst time Lj' cnr WIIS tho still h(,I\\'ily snoweJ­up BlIrzil pa"s (-1,590 metersi halfway be·tween Srinllgar and Gilgit.

The car" could not be taken lIIuch bC'\,(lIIdGilgit.. The IlllSt I,:!<X) ki lornckrs to Aksu,where the E'xpl.'flition finally met four of thocars which lwei Ht/l.rtcd on from Peking,were aecom pli:<lwtl wit,h sixty Bactriancamels anti eighty paek horsC's in thirty.eight day,;,

The jonrney of the group from Pl'kingbad not been IIny less eventful. The tripthrough the Gobi Desert mllde it ncc("slIryto cany along suffil'i('nt, fuel for 2.000 kilo­meters. Hetwcl-n );ingsia amI Linngchow,200.mder.high ISllnd dunes had to be nego­tint.ed. The road was 1;0 bnd that thiA!!ection of 450 kilometers, which undernormal ci,rcumstances can easily be coveredin eight houl'S, took six whole days. Theexpedition had to battle against sand stormsblowing llCro"S the dusty stC'Pt>Cs of Turke­stan and choking lip tho cnrbtll'etor, and toendurc the iry rold of the ~I.ongolian winter.Tho mlLin diflieulties, howevl'r, aroso frol11the aU it udo of tho Sinkiang Gon-rnmC'nt.While the Chinese go\'ornlllent gn\'o t,heexpedit ion a permit for t he journey providedthat it took along a uclegation of eightChinei'e ollicinls and scientists, the GO\'(,l'IIorof ~inkian~ refu:<ed to let the expeuitionenter IlIlless it left thCSQ Chineso mom bl'r,;behind.

TTWUBLE IN SrNXlANO

When the expedit,ion was about to leaveKansu Province at the end of July, a reyoltof the Mohammedan Tunglllls suddenlybroke out, On reaching Hami, tile wholetown WIIB fOlmd to be in an uproar. ~i·

mult.luleou-Iy, the mcm bel'S of thc expeditionlcarnt.cJ that two supply columns with gl1~o,

line and spare part,~ hal! been plunderednear the border. Destroyed villages andburuing houses wero pa.-;sod on til, WILY,

Tbe corp.-es of ilion nnd hor,;es 11I1lrkeu thedirection whieh the revolt I.md taken,

In Turfan an order from the Go\'errlor WIlS

banded to the expedition cOlllmanding it to

255

proceed at once to Urumchi. This involveda detour of over 400 kilometers. On thE'irentry into the capital on July 8 t.hey wrrerecci\'ed with military hononi, caunon salvo.;,and Il sumptuous banquet; subse<plCntl,\',howover, they were preH'nted for t WI)

months from continuing their jourlley. ()II

~ept.elllbel' 6 the cars were at lll,;;t pel'lIl it ll-dto pl'oceecI t~) Ka,;hgar nft.er the leader ofthe t'xp(:dition ha.d d('dareu himself prC'pan.. 1to in~tall a rudio station at the headquarter'of the Go\"ernor.

The lal'lt la p of the journey to AkslI WlI

aecomplished in leRR than one month wit.holltfurther incident, excepting one difliclIltpassage at Tokosun just bf'hind Turfnnwhcre wit hin a few kilol1letC'rs the rOllddosc('nd~ :!,OOO meter!! down a rocky !'nvi11P.

L'nitcc! with tho members of thc KMhmirexpedition, t he return journey WIlS ix'gllnon October~. Twenty daylS lat,er t.ll<'Y harlrellched Urlllllchi again. Christmas Wl\~

8pent with tho Cenna.n TIl issionll.ries atKnnchow and ~ew Ycar in Liangchow. On,Fobmary 12, 1U32, Peking, the dOFltinutionof the expedition, was reached. This la!'tpart of the journey fl'ol11 Aksu to PC'ldD~,

a distance of 5,000 kilomcters, wa co\"ercuin 12i days, '

It can Le seen from this that Marco Poloas well as the Citroen Expedition-the latt-er,by force of eil'cumst.ance only for part ofthe way-followed the course of tho old ilkroads, ~im ply Localise these present the 1U0:!t;com'enient connection between '''cst I1.ndEa,;t, in t.he meantime the Russians havecom plct.c.-<1 the construct ion of /l mot or roadacross t.he Terck Dawan pn"sE's from Oshto ]~Ilshgar, This roarl will link lip ~in·

kiang with the existing RII,;sian TurkE'"tanmotol' roads to Tashkellt, ~al11arkl\nd,

J3okhara, ~rcn'. amI ~Ieshed.

Apart from t.he abo\'c'lII('ntioncl! Tl'rckpnsses, there are hardly any technicalJifliculties to lIIodem road construction inthe way of cha.nging tho ancient caravan rOftdinto n. road for 10l\g,di~tance lIIotor traffichy imprO\'ing the road foundations andbuilding hotel;:, gasoline station. , and r('pairshops, Tho reopening of this old tmns­continental road would have a trelllendousinflucnce on the commercial traffic hetweenthe peoplC's of tIlC We t, Ccntral ARia, andEa~t AlSill, "V!lNealS ullt.il now goods des­tined fOl' the interior of Asia had to bebrought by ship 1.0 the harbors of the southAsiat.ic coasts ancl from there overlandaeross tho formida hie mountain passcs of

THE XXth CENTURY~56

t.he Himalavas, thev would in euch a. casereach C'A'ntr;1 Asia by a direct route. How­ever, this project d'cpends entirely on t.hewillingness of all t.he states cono('rn('d.especially the USSR. to collaboratR. Thcdistance of 11.000 kilometer~ frOID IstanbulOJ" Cairo to Shanghai could t.hen be coveredin forty-two days at an il\'Crnge of only250 kilometers per day, while thc' cam!>lcaravans in t.he time of the silk roads re­<Iuin..d almost ten months for the samejourney. A freighter takes thirty days fortho voyage frolll Port, Said to Shanghai andan (. xpresR tlteamcl' uf t he ~clt(J'r1I,hO',.·t classtwonty days.

THE AL'TIIUU',,; I:XI'EDITIIlC'i

Whcn I sct out ill mid-Oel'elUber HI;~5

from Berlin on Illy joul"I1ey through AsiaI had the choice of taking the route cithl'l'_throll~h Turkcy or through Egypt. Therouk via Turkey is still the sallle by whi('hhundrcds of years ago caravans travC'iedfrOIll Bagdad to Stambul; but today it isRtill in a condition hardly better than duringthe Cl'nsndes. For the mot.oril:lt.. this routeis Jill pleasure jaunt. Apart from the an­Hoying formalities connected with the transitpe~mit, the roads, bad enough at any time.becomc almost impassable in winter owingto the hcavy downpours which convert theminto decp mud. On the other II/md, theroads through Egypt., Palestine. and Syriaarc for thegreater part, p~.Lved with a,"phalt.

CcnemJly speaking, the section CairolCulcutta, otTen. hardly any difficultieR wortllmentioning to people not averse to roughingit, pro\-ided the journey is undertaken at afavorable t.ime of the year, i.e., in spring orRutumn, in order to avoid the rainy seasonand the great hea.t of summer in the Sinai,t.ho Syria.n. and the Persian-Afghanistant1el-\ert. al"l'us.

Many years ago the journey f!"Om Calaisto Calcntt.a (11,000 kilometers) wa.~ coveredin the rc(.'ord time of thirty-three days byan F.nl!li~h motorist. I myself had nointentio~1 of racing across the Continent:my idclL was to allow more time for makingcultural and sociological studies on the way,60 t.hat I took altogpther six month" tof('uch Calcutta. from Berlin.

Shah Reza Pahlevi i'uccceded in sup­pressing the bandl'l of nlh"en~ which usedto make the Kurdistan and Afghanistanborder regions of Iran unsafe. Hc ere~ted

n. strong police force find Rim' 'Itaneolll~lyhad a large part of thp old caravan

rClau widened and con'l'"erted into goodmotor roads.

Afghanistan was opened to internationaltransit traffic u bare ten years ago. Untilthen this area was as inacce!lsible to Euro­peans as Tibet or the Hejaz. The cOlmtryis inhabited by a number of independenttribes, such as the Baluchis, Kharotis, Ghil·zais, Pathans, Waziris, and the Afridis, U

weH as by TlII'kmen, Tajiks, and Uzbeks inthe north-a total of about 12 millioUB­who arc all fanatica:! adherents of Islam,bold, warlike, and extremely intolerantof t,hose of 0. different creed.

Politically speaking, Afghanist.an is •buffcr st.ate between Russia and BritishrndilL. Climatically and geographically, iti!'l 0. country of extremes. High, rocky, ioymountain chains and sun-parched desertaform the principal features of the eount,ry.l\[ore than half of it is occupied by thet'l'ackless l:lDow·covered mountain ranges ofthe Paropl\misus and Hindu Kush. Southof these the view of the colorless deserts ofthe Hegistan is lost in the quiver of\'ibrnting heat waves which hovel' overthe desert wastes and delude the travelerwith mirages. A geological curiosity ispw,-ided by the rivers of this countrywhich, instead of flowing toward the ocean,dl'y up some;vhere in the desert or, like the~lurghab and Hari Hud Rivers, debouch intolakes. In spring, when the snow on themountains melts, they swell into mightyrivers.

ONE HOLDUP

"For Heaven's "ake, don't go throughAfghanistan," we were warned, when I leftMeshed with my companion, "YOll willnever leave the country alive. Not longago another car W/l.S held lip and robbedOIL the way to Duzdab." However, weexp<wienced nothing of thc sort, apart fromone little holdup which. in keeping with thewildne-8s of the country, was of a warlikenature and landed us in the gloomy dungeonof un Afghan mud fortr~s. But latt>r, overtea auu cakes, our ca.ptors were unmaskedas porfeetly ha.rmless frontier guards.

We had no cause to complain of any lackIIf hospitality in the country of the Emir.The difficulties we experienced were of l\

ditTerent nature. In May the hent wasalready so intense during the day time thatour tirC'-s burst. We were obliged to travelin the evening !lnd at night and to sleept.hrough the day in the vaults of somecaravanserai.

THI'; '1 HASSCO~TINENTAL RUL'TI':S OF ASIA

Th ReCtion from Herat via Farah t{)Kandahar (660 kilometers) is onlyI' eara.vanvaill\nd rarely ulred by cars. After Kanda·har, however, the ronti improves. With thewidening of the roads, which chiefly winrtalong ri\'er valleyA. the forwarding of good ,hitherto taken care of exclusively by cam·vans-there are no railways yet in Afghani­Mil-is gradualJy being shifted to truck".8&ee1 bridges are being thrown a.crofols therivers, and in the larger cities garages, repairEoJlll' and hotels are making their ap·pearance.

KaLul, the principal junction of the briBkcarlwan traffic between Baluchista.n, Ba.ctria,TurkMtan, and India, can also be reachedfrom Herat bv a northern route via Balkhand the p~ of the Hindu Kush; but thil!far more interesting route is at presenthardly feasible for automobiles.

1'hcre is already considerable motor traffiethrough the Khyber P&IIll to Peshawar.Since a.ncient times all great conquerorswith their armies have traversed the twenty·eight kilometers of this much.disputed pass.At Fort Jamrud starts the great NorthIndian trunk roliO. running via Lahore/Dt-Ihi Benl\res to Calcutta, an a8phalt roadabout :?,300 kilometers in length.

India possesses an exteru;ive network ofI'I)l.UIK and railways. Most of the greattrunk road from Delhi to Bombay andMadras (2,800 kilometers) with an I.'xtensiont~ Madura and Colombo in Ceylon (1,000kilometers) is also aspbaltcd. Moreover,there are good roads leading to all importantplane" as wl'lI as to tbose of historical in·terest.

1'UE MISSING LINK

Ali for the topogrnp1)y of Burma, the nextcouutry to be traversed, I have dealt withthat in detail in the article "Burma Trails,"appearing in the March 1944 i88ue of thiHmagazine. Suffice it to say here that, untilrecently, the only land cOIUlectionB leadingfrom Burma to her neighboring countriOtlwore narrow jungle and mountain paths.The upheavals entailed by the present warhave tlCrved to brea.k through the isolationimpo:lC<1upon Burma by her natural barriers.The widely discussed "Burma Road" cameinto existence, connL'Cting Mandalay-lying011 the mllin traffic artery of Hurma-withKunming and the road system of CentralChinn. FurthernlOre. there is a project fora road to link up Mandalay with Hanoi

257

(1,400 kilollll'tl':"s) which is to lead throughthe Shan ~tate~ Ilnd Laos.

As HUle as ten year!:! ago Thailand st illpoBSCBSCd a road mileage 80 negligible ~

hardly to be worth mentioning. Not untilW37 did the Government begin to open upthe country by construct.jng highways; itstartoo an eighteen.year plan for road con·Htruction to be completed in three laps offive, five, and eight years in order to coverThailand with a modern road system whosocenter will probably be the new capitalPechabun, 300 kilometers north of Bangkokand 100 kilometers 80utheallt of Pit.sanulok.The first part of the program, 4,400 kilo­meters, Was recently accomplished at theexpenllC of 30 million ticals (now caUcdbaht).

In Malai and particularly in FrenchIndo.China, both roads and raihvaY8 areexcellent. The "Route Coloniale No. I" or"Mandarin Road" ifl a first-class highwaywhich, starting at Langson on the Chinest:border, l{'arls along the coast via Houc,Touranc, Ilnd Saigon to tho Thai railwaystation of Aranya Pradcsa, Il diBtance (If2,1i20 kilometers.

A quartN of 11 century ago, China hardlypossessed lIny highways at nil. During thelast ten yeaf'l'l. however, the Chinese Govern­llIent hM made great efforts to expand tht'road system. The olr! routcfol were flhorten('(1lind converted into motor roads. Early inHI37 it was already JlOSlliblc to travel byear from Tnliftl to Canton and Shanghai,llnd from there on w Peking.

Hence there is only the connection be­tween Imphal in Assam Province and BhaJlloor Mandalay in BUrllll\ (700 kilometers) tltilllacking to span the latlt ~ap between theI<:uropean and North African road systemsand the Chinese rO/HI network via thesouthern route.

R.4.ILW.4.YS

The railwllY lines run in the same directionas the great high,,·&ys. The Russian Trans­Siberian milw8Y is up t~ now the only oneconnecting Europe with the porL'! on theYellow Sea. The traiJl covers the distanceof 10,000 kilometers from Berlin to l"usanon the ext,reme point of Korea itl tweh·1.'days.

Contrary to the prevailing endeavor ofall modern states, the Soviet Union, whichoccupies half of the whole Asia.tic continent,bas rema.incd aloof from the community of

THE XXth CE~"'TURY258

nations. There is very scanty informationconcerning journeys in the interior of thecountry, its traffic, commercial, and in­dustrial conditions. As a. rule, foreignerswere only permitted to travel on the Siberianrailway and on the line from Leningrad via1\Ioscow and Kiev to the Caucasus. SinceStalin has been ruling Russia, the countryhas been hermetically sealed to foreignexplorers and travelers. Consequently, So­viet Russia canoot be reckoned with in anyfree transcontinental traffic for the time~eing.

.Another possibility, namely, a railway linefrom Istanbul across Iran and Turkestan,Itas not even been seriously considered yeton account of the unsettled political con·ditions in Central Asia. The southern sec·tion via India, however, is gradually ap­proaching completion. During the presentwar, this project is being promote<.! withparticular energy by the Allied powers, asit provides a strategically important meansfor the swift transport of troops and material.

The section which still lacked completionlll1t.il recently in the Bagdad li.ne is nowopen to traffic. The Iranian railwayfrom the Caspian Sea to BandaI'Shapur on the Persian Gulf (about 1,500kilometers) was completed just before theolJtbreak of the war in 1938. A branell linewhich is to connect Teheran with the Turkishrailway lIet at Tabriz is under construction,unci so is aJlother line which wi.n connectthe trans-Iranian railway via Kerman withtbe Indian t,runk line at Za!Lidan (Duzdab).

The Indian railway system-attaining 0.

total length of more than 65,000 kilometers-whose principal trunk line reaches as faras Calcutt.a, extends in the east to thetrackless border mountains of Burma whichseparat.e this country from China.

• • • AN D PROJ ECTS

In order to COUllect the hitherto completelyisulated railway lines of Burma and Thailand

with those of India and China, the follOWingprojects have been considered:

(1) An extension of the Indian railway"which ends at Chittagong on the GuH ofBengal, along the Arakan coast across the700-meter-high Taungup Pass to Padaungon the bank of the Irrawaddy River oppositethe Burmese railway station of Prome.

(2) An extension from whio, theterminus of the branch line from MandaJay,across the Salween River ferry at Kunlong,then south along the Burma Road to Kun·mingo The French railway line Kunming!Haiphong was inaugurated in 1910.

(3) A railway cOllilection from Moulmeinon the Gulf of Martaban to Pitsanulok, thestation on the Thai north-south line, 390kilometers north of Bangkok.

(4) The Japanese project, that has fre·quently appeared in tho press since theconq uest of the Malay Peninsula, of con·necting Fusan in Korea by a direct railwayline with Shonan. This line is to rUll fromShanghai via Hangchow/ChuchowfKweilin/LiuchowfNanning to LUllgehow, the north·ermnost terminus of the French Indo-Chinarailway. The railway system of FrenchIndo-China is to be linked up with that ofThailand, from where a direct connectionwith Shonan has been in existence for morethan fifteen years.

Only two sections of about 500 kilometerseach are still missing to make this project,which involves 8,000 kilometers, a reality:the section LiuchowfLungchow, and thatfrom Tanap via Pakse to Uban, the terminusof the eastern Thailand railway line, unlessthe existing line via Saigon/Pnom-Penh!Aranya Pradesa is made lISC of, which,however, involves a considerable detour.

With the opening of this line as well asof the Iranian and Burmese sections men­tioned above, it would in the future also bepossible to reach the great ports of EastAsia from Europe by train via the southernroute.

1levenge

A citizen of Clevehlnd. Ohio. who had Leon out of work for 0. long timeduring the depression and who now hus an .."ceUent position in an armamentplant. made use of the present shortage of ltillor to apply for a job. He wasoffered 20 jobs and gloefully turned them nil down.