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WHAT IS GOING ON?
This web site had its original ongoing regular
development with updates and additions occuring over the period of the active Australia-China cooperative Shu Roads Project
after 2006. The front page provided access to the activities
and products from the Project and evolved until the end of 2008. After that time a number
of things happened. One was that the Project completed. This happened in mid-2009 followed by reporting. However, there has
been an ongoing active continuation in China with the Hanzhong Museum as lead and with support from the Hanzhong City and Shaanxi Provincial governments.
When the original Australia-China Project completed its two Phases it was reported and its funding acquitted.
Following this, in September 2009, the site developer retired, had some illness and then
recuperated. This led to some more leisurely activities such working towards a new front page and web site.
In the last two years there have been more visits to China and recently an exciting field
visit involving a road survey between Chengdu, Hanzhong, Xixiang and then the Old Road to Baoji. The outcomes
are reported as one of the items below (Shu Road Field Work, June 2012). However, the
progress of the new web site and some other activities have been delayed a little
longer due to recovery being slower than expected. The
planned time for launch of the new site is now planned to be in
late 2013. The present site and the new site will co-exist for a while and
re-directions made for a time until the new site is fully operational.
Until that occurs, this page will continue to provide direct links to areas of the site where
things have been added or updated. It will
be updated regularly as changes occur and until the new site is operational.
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Direct Link
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Introduction
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The Chinese Name for Australia
Final Penultimate Version.
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There has been an update to the "Chinese name for Australia". In April 2011, David Jupp first posted a draft document that
explored the origin of the present Chinese name for Australia (澳大利亚) and how it became
accepted as such by Chinese. It has taken him, and whoever wished to read it, to lots of interesting places.
For some time, the document has remained a "Draft"
as there was a final question to be answered - who was the western missionary
who coined the modern name for Australia in Chinese in 1834? The answer has involved considerable research - but it is over and the answer
can be found in the FINAL (and now Penultimate) version of June 16, 2013 available here. In the future, if you have comments, you are still very welcome J
to also provide feedback, suggestions, corrections and to point out errors.
Access to the document is via a web page where there is an explanation, a summary and access to other documents.
You are welcome to find out all the answers to the questions that prompted this work at this page:
"The Chinese name for Australia".
This version will remain as the only version - except for minor edits when found by readers. Any major change will
only occur if it is decided to proceed to a more official and professional publication. Although it may not
appeal to everyone, this project has been a great experience and of great interest and enjoyment to me.
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The Ancient Tangluo Road.
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The Tangluo Road was an ancient Shu Road that crossed the Qinling Range between Zhouzhi in the Wei Valley to Yangxian in
the Hanzhong Basin. Today the southern slopes of this region are a huge mountainous widerness and Panda reserve. But in the
Qing period the road was active in commerce and trade and a remote "Ting" at Fofu Ping, in a high sheltered valley
manned by a few officials tried to control
the traffic and combat the many bandits. An English Consular Officer, Sir Eric Teichman used this wild
road to travel from Hanzhong into the Wei River valley, visiting Foping in 1917. His account and maps have been the
basis for an attempt to reconstruct his journey, and the other paths that make up the ancient road network,
across the Qinling watershed through passes up to 2000m above the Wei and Hanzhong plains as a
Google Earth presentation. The work so far, translations of information only previously in Chinese as well as
the materials being used, are being made available to interested people
HERE. A comprehensive document is being
prepared describing these places and times and, when it is ready, this link will be its home page.
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Talk to the Australia China Friendship Society
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David Jupp gave a talk to the Australia China Friendship Society on April 17, 2013 at the Southern Cross Club, Jamison.
David Jupp provided information about the talk that can be checked out
HERE.
The talk and photographs shown have been provided as PDF files and its linked HTML files for to look at and access.
The PDF of the main talk can be found
HERE.
You are welcome to access them this way and/or contact the author for more direct access to material of interest.
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KMZ Files for the Ancient Tangluo Road
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Two new KMZ files have been added (initially posted December 2012 with UPDATES in January and April 2013) to the Google Earth and GPS area. One is a set of places and routes on the Ancient Tangluo Road as inferred from the map and account
by Sir Eric Teichman in 1917 and a set of routes defined by places to be found in a document written by Zhou Zhongqing and published by the Hanzhong Museum.
The other is an enhanced digital terrain model displaying stream and ridge lines that is compatible with Google Earth.
The two files may be downloaded from the normal place
HERE.
In providing reasonable estimates for the tracks and paths of the ancient Tangluo Road, the Russian Topographic Map set has been used extensively.
Newer and updated documemtation, including an updated Table for converting Cyrillic to Pinyin, has been developed
for these maps and may be accessed HERE. A document
describing the extent of the ancient Tangluo Roads based on Sir Eric's visit and other material is in progress.
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Shu Road Field Work, June 2012
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Field work was carried out in Sichuan and southern Shaanxi in June 2012 to check places described along the Jinjiu Road between Chengdu and Hanzhong by
Alexander Wylie in 1868. From Hanzhong, Alexander Wylie used a linking road to go to Shiquan, avoiding rapids on the middle Han River. From Shiquan he took a boat to Hankou.
The visit also included a field investigation of the linking road and places on it - such as the Guluba settlement where Italian missionaries had settled
in the late Qing period. The southern field mission and a brief but productive journey along the Lianyun Road to Baoji were also used to Check barrier posts and places in Shaanxi
that were recorded on a Qing Period Scroll Map held by The Library of Congress (see map details HERE).
Before the visit, materials, including a Table of identified place names and three Topo Map Mosaics
based on the Russian Military 1:200k maps of the 1960's were used to check routes and places and made available on the web as well as in hard copy format.
GPS tracks and waypoints confirmed
by the field visits are now being used to update of the GE KMZ presentation that can be found HERE.
The items making up the base of information for the work, including the GE presentations, documents, papers and other references has been set up as a web link
HERE along with documents that describe the outcomes of the field visit.
The Russian Topographic Maps used for the work have
enabled the pre-1960 road routes to be used as surrogates for older Shu Roads and linking routes. They have also established the extent of changes that have
occurred since the main motor road from Chengdu to Baoji was completed in 1941.
Information on all the data sources and other material can all be found at the new Web Page.
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The US Library of Congress digital Chinese maps
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The US Library of Congress has a large collection of Chinese materials. Among these are maps and map reproductions dating back centuries.
The web page can be found
HERE.
Part of the collection is the Arthur Hummel collection and some of the maps of the Hummel collection are
in the 287 images available in digital format. One of the maps of interest is the
“Map of the four provinces in the north bank of the Han River” (1800~1820).
A discussion of the US LoC collection and access to a Jpeg set of images from the above map can be found
HERE.
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Updated Google Earth KMZ Files (Feb 2012)
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Since the start of the Shu Roads project, a number of
Google Earth KMZ presentation files illustrating different technologies have been available on the site. Recently the original ones have been
updated and some new ones have been added.
The set of files now available has been expanded and the technology used in all examples has been significantly improved.
For example, the main Shu Roads Google Earth KMZ presentation file has been updated based on visits to China and new material obtained
since it was originally put together. The code has also been re-developed as a region based network linked system.
The new system can be updated so that anyone using it will have immediate access to updates without downloading any new files.
All of the KMZ files on the site
have had improvments and new ones have been added following field work in June 2012. If you are using these files, and/or wish
to check out the new ones, please download the new and improved ones by visiting the updated site
HERE and find out for yourselves!
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Library of
Congress Qing Period scroll map
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An ancient Qing period scroll map, discussed by Herold
Wiens, is held by the US Library of Congress. It is called 《陕境蜀道图》 or “The Shu Road from
Shaanxi to the Sichuan Border”. It was scanned by the Library of
Congress and quicklook images and other information have been made
available on THIS PAGE of the Shu Roads web site.
Since the data were first made available, there have been many updates. They have included making
high resolution data available and adding translations to two important papers about the scroll map
that were in Chinese.
One is a Chinese paper by Bi and Li (2004) describing the map that has been translated. It was
the first one written following the work by Li Xioacong to catalogue the Library of Congress
Collection. It can be obtained from
THIS PAGE.
A Chinese paper by Hanzhong Museum Director Feng Suiping (2010) taking the Bi and Li (2004) paper as base and adding extensive new material
has now been translated. In addition to the translation of the Bi and Li (2004) paper it can also be obtained from
THIS PAGE. Finally, various discussion documents can also be reached from the page.
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Herold J
Wiens and his publications
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Herold J Wiens was an American Geographer whose Thesis
in 1949 provided a comprehensive examination of the Shu Roads. Herold Wiens Thesis is probably the most comprehensive material about the Shu Roads
in English language. The site makes his paper and Thesis available for study and citation. His early examination of the Qing Period Scroll Map in the Hummel Collection
(described in detail HERE) of the US Library of Congress was suggested by Arthur Hummel and helped bring to light the presence of such items in this important collection (see a
more details of the collection HERE).
Herold Wiens
grew up in China as his family founded a Mennonite mission in Fujian in a town
called Shanghang (上杭) in
a Hakka (客家) area of the
upper reaches of the Han river (韩江).
The story of his family and Herold's early years can be found in a
privately published book written by his sister, Adina Wiens Robinson,
called "China Beckoning".
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An
Introduction to the Shu Roads
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This PDF (1.332 MB) is an introduction developed from a
number of documents and translations that arose during the ACC Project. It
uses, but does not discuss, 3S technology and primarily outlines the
history, geography, culture and environment that surrounds the Shu roads,
the Plank roads and the barrier passes that made up these trade and traffic
routes for (probably more than) 3000 years.
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2007 Symposium Presentations
and Publications
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Selected presentations for the 2007 International
Symposium on Plank Road Research and Applications of 3S Technology held in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, China. An introductory paper and the recently published
collected papers have now been referenced as well as PDF files of some
important presentations.
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Talks to the
Australia-China Friendship Society in Canberra April 29 2009
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David Jupp gave a talk to the Canberra Branch of the
Australia-China Friendship Society (PDF of current Society
Bulletin) on Wednesday April 29. Presentation in two PDF Files can be
downloaded as the main talk HERE
(warning, PDF is 4.087 MB) and a group of scans from a magazine about the
Wenchuan Earthquake HERE (second PDF
is 1.051 MB). The second PDF can be started from within the first if you
wish provided the PDF files are in the same directory.
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Translation
of Feng Suiping’s Bendigo memories
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During the September 2008 visit to Australia, Feng Suiping was very impressed by the exhibits and enterprise on display at the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Victoria. The visitors discovered experiences of Chinese people in Australia from the Gold Rushes of the 1800’s to the present and continued in Melbourne at the Chinese Museum and at the Immigration Museum.
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Final
Acquittal for ACC Project (2009)
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Formal acquittal and report to the Australia China
Council for Phase II of the Project (April 2009) and References to
supporting material (acquittal is Reference 24)
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