Q&A ยท 1:44:07-1:44:31

How far upriver could large warships travel in China?

A viewer asks how far up the Yangtze and other Chinese rivers large warships could sail.

Question

How far up the Yangtze and other Chinese rivers could large warships sail?

Short answer

No distance is given, but Royal Navy mapping from the Second Opium War shows that vessels reached quite far upriver.

Notes

No precise distance is given. The answer points instead to Royal Navy mapping undertaken during the Second Opium War and says that British vessels reached quite far upriver. This is an orientation toward the hydrographic work that made riverine naval operations possible rather than a measured navigation limit.