Red River (Asia) - As A Travel and Transportation Route

As A Travel and Transportation Route

In the 19th century, the Red River was thought to be a lucrative trade route to China. The late 19th-century French explorers were able to travel up the Red River until Manhao in South Yunnan, and then overland toward Kunming. It was the forced opening of the Red River to European commerce that prompted the 1883–1886 wars between France and the Vietnamese court, culminating in the conquest of Vietnam.

The Red River remained the main commercial travel route between the French Indochina and Yunnan until the opening of the Kunming–Hai Phong Railway in 1910. Thanks to the river, Hai Phong was in the early 20th century the sea port most easily accessible from Kunming. Still, the travel time between Hai Phong and Kunming was reckoned by the Western authorities at 28 days: it involved 16 days of travel by steamer and then a small boat up the Red River to Manhao (425 miles), and then 12 days overland (194 miles) to Kunming.