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menced a long and gradual ascent up a broad open slope to the south by an excellent road. Indeed, most of the roads in this part of Yunnan are very good as compared with the high road to Burmah.
After five hours' march, by which time we had reached 9,900 feet, we passed over into the Mekong basin. There is no water to be got on this ascent, and, consequently, no villages. On reaching the top of the pass an extensive and characteristic view of a large part of West Yunnan was unfolded. At our feet, 1,800 feet below us, was the narrow valley of Chien Chuan, and beyond it a series of regular parallel ranges capped with snow, and running north and south we descended into the valley that afternoon, and struck the main road from Ta Li to Wei Hsi.
Just north of the hamlet of Po Chueh, where we camped, there is a beautiful tarn of rich blue water, which has been banked up as a reservoir. From Po Chach to Chien Chuan is an easy day's march down the valley (south), which is not over a mile in breadth; the villages which fringe the foot-hills on both sides become larger and more numerous as we approach the city, where we were put up by the hospitable official.
Just south of the city the valley opens out into a wide and roughly-circular plain, closed by high mountains on the south, or Ta Li side. This plain is some 3 miles wide, and very fertile. A large part of it is occupied by a large lake.
The whole district ("chou," or sub-prefecture) of Chien Chuan is officially stated to contain 10,000 families, of which two-thirds are located in the main valley which we bad descended. The city population is about 7,000, and the streets are crowded on market day. The country folk are nearly all Minchia, but they speak Chinese and wear Chinese dress. There are no export products here, except a little surplus rice. The people are lazy, and get enough to live on from the padi-fields without planting winter crops. In fact, the only industry is charcoal-burning.
In September 1902 Chien Chuan valley was visited by an alarming earthquake; about fifty persons are said to have been buried under the ruins of a village 4 miles south of the city, and the yamên itself was left in such a crooked, cracked, and dilapidated condition that it presents an excellent type of the Government whose Representative dwells within its walls.
There is only one small outlet for the waters of the Chien Chuan valley: this is at Tien Wei, 15 li to the south of the city. The Mahommedans at Ta Li, during the rebellion, reduced Chien Chuan by damming up this outlet and so flooding the whole place. Throughout the dry season the padi-fields near the lake are deep in wet mud, and this condition attracts vast numbers of wildfowl, especially mallards. The sportsman who does not object to being occasionally stuck in the mire can walk up wildfowl in the stubble like partridges at home.
The Chien Chuan people, though they have no industries, have a temper of their own; and they have hitherto successfully resisted the establishment of li-kin or Prefect's tax stations in their valley.
From Chien Chuan across the Mekong and Salwen Basins to Teng Yuch.
We left the city of Chien Chuan by the south gate, with the intention of making as straight a line as possible to Teng Yueh, passing near the west limits of Chinese jurisdiction, and gaining some knowledge of the great parallel ranges which run north and south, near the banks of the Mekong and Salwen Rivers.
A good paved causeway runs down the valley south of Chien Chuan. At 1 mile the road to Tien Wei and Ta Li, which passes near the lake, divides off to the south, and we turned south-west to the village of Lo Yu, situated in the foot-hills which fringe the valley. From this point we took a last look at the snowhill of Lichiang (which is a conspicuous object from the Chien Chuan valley), and ascended through open, hilly country past a series of small tanks, where water is stored for hill cultivation. Extensive views of the mountains to the east and south of the Chien Chuan valley are obtained, until we entered a narrow, wooded gorge, and, passing a col (8,100 feet), descended to the clean little village of Shih Tzu Chiao. From this point we enter the valley of Yang Ts'en, which is half a mile wide, and runs east and west for 4 miles, containing half a dozen villages and some good padi lands. From the west end of this valley we commenced an ascent, and stopped at the mountain hamlet of Shui Tzu Ping. In the course of this day's march we had seen nothing but Minchia.
On the 3rd January we began, from Shui Tzu Ping, the first of the great ascents which intervene between Teng Yueh and the Yang-tsze basin. This pass is known as
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range which
the Shih Chung Shan ("Stone Bell Hill"), and takes the traveller over the forms the west boundary of the Chien Chuan Lake basin. The pass is 9,900 feet high, and is distant from Shui Tzu Ping 4 miles, or 12 hours for laden mules. The road is littered with a dilapidated pavement, and leads through dense forest the whole way. At the top of this trying ascent we found two old gentlemen living in a hut, and a cock pheasant living in their cabbage-garden. The former supplied us with information and the latter with dinner. The descent on the west side to the valley of Lan Chou is down an exceedingly steep and abrupt spur for 1,600 feet, and then by a stream in a close gorge to the village of Chiang Wei (which boasts a police-station), and across a stream out on to the valley.
The Lan Chou plain is watered by the head streams of the Yangpi River (which is crossed at Yangpi, the tenth stage from Teng Yuch on the Yünn m-fu road). Further south the river receives the outpourings of the Ta Li Lake, and finally joins the Mekong.
The valley of Lanchou consists of broken country with a number of small mamelons. It is about 8 miles by 4 miles, and contains a dense population of Miachia in about two dozen villages.
There is a market at Ma Teng. We put up at the village of Kan Ho Tien, at the foot of the formidable range on the west of the valley. This range we negotiated on the following day. Owing to the presence of a variety of "spooks" it is considered to be the most formidable pass in this part of the country. If the traveller while ascending utters the word "cold,” he will be at once seized with a deadly chill, if not frozen stiff; if he utters the word "hunger," he will be at once griped with an excruciating stomach-ache.
CO
I was warned against going aside from the road for any necessary purpose without taking my bearings with a compass, and observing the position of the sun lest I should offend the Shan Wang," or Deity of the hills. Though all this must be true, as it was told to me by Lanchou men who are constantly making the ascent, we found The the "Yang Lu," or road of the sun, as it is called, by no means a difficult pass. ascent to the top from Lanchou took three and a-half hours' steady marching up a broad road partly paved. The summit of the pass is 12,200 feet. At the foot of the hill are fir shrubs, and higher up bamboo scrubs and rhododendrons. At the top is a hut where fatigued travellers are regaled with hot sugar and water. The last 1,500 feet of the ascent was over snow and ice.
On the right of the pass, and quite 2,000 feet above it, is a bare inaccessible-looking peak. The range divides the Yangpi River basin from the main stream of the Mekong. It also forms the west boundary of the district of Chien Chuan, and on the west side of the range we re-enter the extensive district of Li Chiang Hsien, which includes the right bank of the Mekong.
From the top of the Yang Lu Pass a fine view is obtained of the great mountains on the west side of the Mekong, forming a regular and majestic range, whose feet are washed by the tributary waters of the Salwen and Mekong, which flow on the west and east of it. In January there was at least 1,000 feet of snow on the range, but in summer it is said to disappear.
The descent from the Yang Lu Pass in a west direction is down a convenient slope with a stream on the left and majestic spurs swelling down to the plain on both sides of the track. At 9,500 feet there are broad patches of cultivation on the hill-sides and little hamlets of log huts inhabited by Lisaw and Minchia; the marketing is done chiefly by the women here; the Lisaw ladies are conspicuous by their dirty white hempen kilts and the shells in their head-dress, while the Minchia women wear turbans and long cotton gowns.
At miles we reached the valley of Pei Ti Ping, an irregular strip of broken land surrounded by mountains and watered by a stream which flows into the Mekong soon after leaving the south end of the valley. There are a few Chinese pedlars to be seen on the market of Pei Ti Ping, but the bulk of the people are Minchia, who are engaged in the salt trade, and own a considerable number of mules,
On the 6th January we crossed the last range which separated us from the Mekong. The road formerly led past ninety-nine hills, ascending ninety-nine terraces, guarded by ninety-nine dragons, but this fearsome stage need no longer be made, as Yang Yu Kuo, the famous General who took a prominent part in the recapture of Ta Li from the Panthays, made another road across the mountains, which is much frequented by salt This road is well paved, and runs in and out and round about through the range, which is of a different character from the mountains which we had crossed. The first part of the day's march was spent in deep gorges between precipitous limestone
caravans.
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