the first step of this great project. Besides, there is in the immediate neighborhood the greatest coal mine that has yet been developed in China, the Kailan Mining Company. The output of its colliery is about four million tons a year. At present the company uses its own harbor, Chinwangtao, for shipping its exports. But our projectd port is much nearer to its colliery than Chinwangtao. It can be connected with the mine by canal thus providing it with a much cheaper carriage than by rail to Chinwangtao. Furthermore, our projected port will in future consume much of the Kailan coal. Thus eventually the Company must use our port as a shipping stage for its exports. Tientsin, the largest commercial center in North China, has no deep harbor and is ice bound several months a year in winter, and so has to use our projected port entirely as an outlet for its world trade. This is the local need only but for this alone it is quite sufficient to make our projected port a paying proposition.
But my idea is to develop this port as large as New York in a reasonable limit of time. Now, let us survey the hinterland to see whether the possibility justifies my ideal or not. To the southwest are the provinces of Chili and Shansi, and the Hoangho valley with a population of nearly a hundred millions. To the northwest are the undeveloped Jehol district and the vast Mongolian Prairie with their virgin soil waiting for development, Chili with its dense population and Shansi with its rich mineral resources have to depend
