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thriving and steady business. There is a branch of the Imperial Chinese Post Office here. Above the town, and half up the lofty peak which dominates the district, is a large picturesquely-situated Lama temple. Coal mined in the neighbourhood is extensively used here and is extremely cheap.
June 19.--The road continues towards the cast at the foot of the mountains. There is plenty of traffic, chiefly pedlars who work from village to village and get plenty of custom. They carry needles, thread, ribbons, gay odds and ends, looking glasses, small pieces of coral, and inferior jade, combs, &c. Soon after noon we reached Salatsi, 17 miles from Shariching; this is the Mongol Chagenkuren. The town is pleasantly situated among some groves of fine trees. There is a small Mongol population here still, and the place is frequently visited by trading Mongols.
The highest official, newly arrived, is said to be progressive, a sign of which is that his women folk have unbound feet. There is an office of the Imperial Chinese posts here.
The Chinese Inland Mission have a mission-station managed by Swedes, who are doing a splendid work, especially among orphan and "enfants trouvés." The Roman Catholics have no mission in the town, but have several stations in the district, chiefly to the south-east,
June 20.-Continuing eastwards, we slept the night at Toshelo, 21 miles from Salatsi. In the afternoon we were overtaken by precisely the same form of dust cloud that we had experienced on the 10th June, and about the same hour. Dense yellow and black clouds rolled over the ground for a distance of 60 miles or more, and several hundreds of feet high. The aspect is simply terrifying, and yet one becomes engulfed quite quietly, and with little or no increase in the force of the breeze. It is unlike the usual dust cloud, for the traveller can face this one without blinking.
We slept the night at Peishieshe, seven and a-half hours by cart further east. The road is low-lying in places, and after rains must be entirely impassable for carts. It is also much cut up by the amount of traffic, which is enormous, as the amount of coal mined in the mountains here and conveyed by cart to Kweihuacheng, is considerable.
Peishieshe gives itself the airs of a large town; it is, however, only a long straggling village. The inns are good, and transport and supplies plentiful. The inhabitants spent the evening parading the streets with clashing of gongs and cymbals entreating Heaven to send yet more rain while it was about it.
June 22.-At noon we passed the temple at the west entrance to Kweihuacheng and crossing the small stream by a low stone bridge, reached the town after an absence of nearly two months.
Extension of Peking--Kalgan Railway to Kweihuacheng and the West.
Though it may seem a little premature to speak of this extension, the matter is one which has been considerably discussed locally, and it is undoubtedly a railway which will be constructed in the near future. Opinions differ as to the course it is to follow, but all think it will come inside the wall to Tatungfu to tap the rich coal mines of that neighbourhood. Thence the line might run north-west through Sopingfu or north through Fengsebönnting to Kweihuacheng. A year ago in Taiyuanfu a railway, called the Poo-tung, was being discussed, to run from Puchow, in the south of Shausi, to Tatungfu in the north. This line would be simple to construct, as it would run through the two lake-bed plains of the province, and which are only separated by one low range of hills. Such a line would connect with the already opened line from the Peking-Hankow Railway to Taiyuanfu, and by extending it across the Yellow River in the south it would connect with the Kaifengfu-Honan Line (almost completed), and which will, it is thought, be extended to Sianfu.
The extension of the Kweihuacheng line to the west to Ninghsia would be an extremely easy task, for there are no hills to cross, nor any water beyond occasional mountain streams and irrigation ditches. The only difficulty would be that some of the ground is low-lying, and subject to floods from the river. These could be circumvented by the line in such places, keeping close to the foot of the hills, and being protected by embankments.
I asked the Taotai of Ninghsia when such a line might be expected, and remarked on the enormous increase of trade which it would bring not only to Ninghsia, but to all the towns en route. I pointed out that the huge mineral resources of the mountains would then be casily developed, and how much more simple the administration of the Mongolian provinces would become and touched more especially on the advantages to the wool, hides, and skius industries. His Excellency sighed and said that the Central
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Government had already asked him to form projects for a railway to Hsinchiang (Urumtsi), but he said that the Central Government must provide the money, for it would be impossible to raise it locally.
The advantages of such a line appear obvious, apart from the development of trade and mineral wealth, for if disorders break out among the Moslems or other races or sections of the Chinese Empire in the west, the present difficulty of dispatching troops is enormous; by such a line troops could reach Ninghsia from Peking in four days or less, where as now two full months are required.
But the Central Government may still view such a railway from the other point of view, namely, that it would be as easy for revolutionaries to reach the capital by such a line, as for the Central Government to use it to crush a revolt.
SECTION III.KWEIHUACHENG TO URGA ACROSS GOBI.
Transport Difficulties.
The consequence of difficulties with the Mahommedan camel-owners, during the journey across Ordos, was that I was wholly unable to procure by myself any transport to cross the Gobi. An appeal had, therefore, to be made to the Chinese officials, who consented to obtain the necessary animals. This, however, they found themselves unable to do, for several reasons: (1) That the month, July, was an unfavourable one for crossing the Gobi (2) that there was little chance of getting any trade for the return journey, and (3) doubtless the bad odour into which I had been thrown among the Mahommedan camel-owners, by the lies of the rascal who had treated us so scurvily across Ordos. The officials, however, begged us to make use of the Tailu or Government track, which begins some four days north of Kweihnacheng, and by which means we should be provided with fresh animals every day. They could not understand my objections to this mode of travelling, which were simply this, that I felt we had no right to travel at the Chinese Government's expense. When, however, it was pointed out, and I was convinced that my taking this route would entail no expense on the Government, who never paid more or less than the annual subsidy to the holders of the post-stations, I waived the objections, but insisted, however, on paying for the carts which carried us for the few days before the Tailu was reached.
I threw on the officials the difficulty of procuring these carts, and the difficulties experienced before starting, and the methods adopted to overcome them may prove of service to future travellers. They also are a good example of the method of official squeeze. The cart dealer employed by the yamên came to the inn and said that he was prepared to supply four carts at 10 tael (61). This was for four days at the rate of 17. 10s. a-head, i.e., 7s. 6d. a-day. He said that this was the official price. Now I knew that the official price on the plain was 3s. a-day (1 tael) for we had come from Salatsi to Kweihuacheng at that rate. After a great deal of argument the price was reduced to 35 taels, and then to 32, but this last price was not satisfactory, and I invited the young official at the yamên to induce the carter to take less. The official demurred, said it was the official price, that the carter was an honest man, and many other things in a similar strain. I enquired what was the official price, and the official replied that the price the carter had named was the official one, and he himself would have to pay if be travelled. He was entirely nonplussed when I mentioned that the carter had named three prices, and remarked that if one of these was the official one I must throw doubt I on his alleged honesty. The official said he would try and arrange with the carter. was in haste to leave for the north, and urged speed. As nothing satisfactory had occurred by the afternoon of the following day I visited the yaniên, and having asked for carts to be ready for the following day, discussed at some length the national vice of squeezing, and finally said that unless I had carts for the following morning, I should bring all my possessions round to the yamên, and wait till the official produced the carts. I mentioned the price I was prepared to pay for the carts, and said that if no news was received by the evening, I should trouble the yamên with another visit. in the day a reply came from the yamen that the carts would not go for my price, I inten- therefore increased it but sent back word that I should be compelled to carry my tion of spending the next day at the yamên if carts were not forthcoming. The result was the return of a message to me to arrange for the carts at the price I liked, and I can warmly recommend this system of treating small officials who attempt to squeeze. I paid 24 taels for four carts for four days, i.e., 6 taels a-piece, but it turned out that four days was a very wide official margin. We got to the first tai in three days, and
Late