PART III

The Northeastern Railway System

This system will cover the whole of Manchuria, a part of Mongolia, and a part of Chihli province--an area of nearly 500,000 square miles, with a population of 25,000,000. This region is surrounded by mountains on three sides and opens on the south to the Liaotung Gulf. Amidst these three mountain ranges lies a vast and fertile plain drained by three rivers--the Nonni on the north, the Sungari on the northeast, and the Liaoho on the south. This part of China was once regarded as a desert, but since the completion of the Chinese Eastern Railway it has been found to be the most productive soil in China. It supplies the whole of Japan and a part of China with nitrogenous food in the form of soya bean. This bean, the wonderful properties of which were early discovered by the Chinese, contains the richest nitrogenous substance among vegetables and has been used as a meat substitute for many thousand years. Vegetable milk is extracted from this bean, and from this milk various kinds of preparations are made. The extraction from this bean has been proved by modern chemists to be richer than any kind of meat. The Chinese and the Japanese have used this kind of artificial meat and milk from time immemorial. Recently food administrators in Europe and America have paid great attention to this meat substitute, while the export of soya bean to Europe and America has steadily increased. This Manchu-Mongolian plain is destined to be the source of the world's supply of soya bean. Besides soya bean, this plain also produces a great quantity of various kinds of grains, and supplies the entire Eastern Siberia with wheat. The Manchurian mountains are exceedingly rich in timber and minerals--gold being especially found in great quantities in many localities.

Railway construction in this region has proved to be a most profitable undertaking. At present there are already three railway systems tapping this rich country, viz., the Peking-Mukden line, the best paying railroad in China, the Japanese South-Manchurian Railway, also a very remunerative line, and the Chinese Eastern Railway, the best paying portion of the whole Siberian system. Besides these, there are many lines projected by the Japanese. In order to develop this rich region properly a network of railways should be projected.

Before dealing with the separate lines of this network of railways, I should like to propose a center for them, just as the spider's nest is to a cobweb. I shall name this central city "Tungchin," the Eastern Mart, which should be situated at a point southwest of the junction of the Sungari and Nonni rivers, about 110 miles west by south from Harbin, and will be in a more advantageous position than the latter. This new city will be the center not only of the railway system but also of the inland water communication when the Liaoho-Sungari Canal is completed.

With the projected city of Tungchin as a center, I propose the following lines:

a. The Tungchin-Hulutao line. b. The Tungchin-Great Northern Port line. c. The Tungchin-Dolon Nor line.