Chin-sha

The boundary between Tibet and China settled by the Manchu Emperor and the Tibetans in 1727 and lasting down to 1910 ran from the Mekong just north of A-t'un-tzu, crossed northward into the Chin-sha Chiang valley and followed the water divide between the Chin-sha and the upper Mekong sources to the Kokonor Territory.

In view of the situation, however, there was little alternative but to withdraw to southern Kweichow and then to veer towards northeastern Yunnan to find a new crossing point on the Chin-sha, the upper course of the Yangtze.

The Yun-Kwei region, a plateau in which virtually no rivers are navigable and all official and commercial transport moved by land, was defined to include the upper reaches of the Hung-shui (a tributary of the West River), of the Wu (a tributary of the Yangtze), and of the Chin-sha (as the Yangtze is known along its upper course) from approximately the point where each becomes unnavigable even for small junks.