Yang-tse-kiang

Yang-tse-kiang (better simply Kiang or Chiang), the longest and most important of Chinese rivers, affording a waterway, not unbroken by rocks and rapids, across the breadth of China from Tibet to the sea, rises in the mountains of Tibet, where its sources were explored by Prejevalsky in 1884-85, and after a course of 3200 miles (south-east, north-east, and east) through Yunnan, Sze-chwan, Hu-pei, An-hui, and Chiang-su, reaches the sea by a wide estuary which begins 50 miles below Nanking, and may be held to terminate near Shanghai. On its banks are, besides Nanking, the important towns of Chin-kiang, Ngan-king, Hankow, Wu-chang, Ichang, and Chung-king (opened to European commerce by treaty in 1890). Some of its many tributaries are over 1000 miles long; its basin is estimated at 689,000 sq. m. Its importance for commerce is enormous, though the navigation is in places difficult even for native boats. Steamers are now running. The treaties of 1898-99 recognised the basin of this river as open to English commerce, and (Russia assenting) a special sphere for English enterprise. See CHINA (p. 184); A. J. Little, Through the Yang-tse Gorges (1888; 3d ed. 1898).