What happens
The Pacific Story is a public service drama of the National Broadcasting Company that examines the background of events in the Pacific. This episode, Transport in China, first broadcast on 1945-12-16, follows a famine-stricken region whose food cannot reach it because there are no railways and the old paths are impassable. The narration traces why China's transportation remained so poor, from the Manchu rulers' opposition to railroads and the destruction of an early 12-mile line, through the building of roads and railways during the war with Japan. It describes the Chinese engineers' efforts to build new lines and highways, the attacks on those routes, and the closing of supply exits such as the Burma Road. The episode concludes by looking ahead to the enormous transport needs China faces after the war.
China, from the late Manchu period through the Second World War and its aftermath
Characters: Gayne Whitman
Listen for: The history of China's railways and roads, from the destruction of the first 12-mile line to the wartime routes into the country and the postwar transport needs.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.