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Chinese wine, mules loaded with wool, oil, grain, skins, liquorice, and fibre, others swinging coffins along to the distant home of the dead, a cock sitting placidly in a basket on the top of the coffin, and possibly wondering whither he was travelling, and ignorant of his fate, when he should have conveyed the soul of the deceased to his home, mule litters carrying merchants and their merchandize down to the capital, and flocks of sheep going down to market. In two years time all these should serve to swell the railway carnings, and the road will probably lie unused, its dust undisturbed. We were in Shacheng at 12:30, a thriving little market town surrounded by a good wall. Leaving Shacheng at 215, we were in Chimingpu, under the shelter of the Chiming Shau, at 6 o'clock. Chimingpu is close to the Yangho; it ends the Hwailai Plain.
April 9.-It had rained sharply during the night and the road was in places heavy with mud. We left at 8 A.M. in a north-west direction, skirting at first the foot of the Chiming Shan, and keeping parallel with the Yangho and Kalgan Railway, the permanent way of which is ready here for a number of miles. Leaving the river we crossed the steep pass, a great strain on the animals; only good mules and experienced carters could bring one over safely without damage to the carts. At 12:10 we joined the Yangho, which had in the meantime swept through gorges, and halted at Hsiang Schuipu, a small mud village with a good inn. In the afternoon we descended into the fertile plain of Hsuanhuafo, famous for its fruits. At times the road was so narrow that almost hopeless blocks occurred in the traffic.
In one of these we were delayed for an hour. It is unusually difficult to induce a Chinese mule to walk backwards, but in these circumstances someone has to. This is done to the accompaniment of a great deal of condemnation of relatives of the carters, mules, and even innocent bystanders, as well as by some odious comparisons, but the Chinese soon forget their grievances and the insults hurled at them, and five minutes later my cart men were screaming with laughter at their troubles.
Hsuanhuafu.
Hsuanhuafu is a large walled prefectural city, much resembling Peking in appear- ance from the outside. The walls, which are altogether some 9 miles in length, are the chief point of interest. They are in an excellent state of repair. The city by no means comes up to expectation when one has entered the walls: the houses are squalid and the shops poor; the poverty of the inhabitants is said to be partly due to the proximity of Kalgan (20 miles away), the latter place taking all the trade, and Hsuanhuafu is too near to be a posting station. The chief industry appears to be tanning, the people buying skins in Kalgan, and bringing them to the many tanneries established at Hsuanhuafu. I was told, but I do not know with how much truth, that the town has never recovered from being taken away from the province of Shansi (some 70 years ago), and incorporated with that of Chihli, The number of inns struck me as being very great, but I was told that business was bad. The advent of the railway may bring about a revival of trade generally, but the inns cannot but be adversely affected. The chief foreign goods I noticed in the poor shops were small oil lamps. The town is governed by a Taotai, who is a Manchu: there are, however, few Manchus in the town ; a large proportion of the population is Mahommedan. The Roman Catholics claim 3,000 adherents, 800 in the town, the rest in the surrounding country. The Roman Catholic Mission is very imposing, and as usual is fortified by a strong wall. The Mission was destroyed in 1900, and has only just been rebuilt. There are three priests there, two French and one Chinese. The China Inland Mission has also a station here, but they claim few adherents. The foreign missionaries emphasized in conversation the unrest in the capital, and as I was questioned as to this by almost all the missionaries with whom I came in contact, it may be of use to sound a note of warning to the foreign newspapers in China, whose articles on the recent acts of incendiarisin in the capital and the importance which in their opinions should be attributed to the same, had created a feeling of unrest among the missionaries, which the situation in no way warranted. These newspapers are very widely read in the provinces, and with the memories of 1900 so recent in peoples minds, too much care cannot be taken to accurately state what is taking place in Peking.
Coal is very expensive in Hsuanhuafu: it should not be so, as there are coal workings on the other side of the Yangho, but water has got into these, and the Chinese are too proud to ask foreign assistance as to how to get rid of it: thus coal has to be carted all the way from Tatungfu.
April 10.-Driving through the streets of Hsuanhuafu to the western gate betrayed the poverty of the town. It seems, however, for its size rich in literary talent, for on
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the way to the town gate I passed no less than three students' houses, the high wooden poles outside which, and the placards running under the eaves of the houses showing that the inhabitant of each had passed the highest Chinese examination possible. Out- side the walls we passed a fine grove of trees, an oasis in the midst of a desert of sand. for a long way the road was entirely sandy and travelling difficult, and it was only after some time that we reached rocky and stony ground. The road gradually ascended, villages and cultivated ground becoming rare, and trees still more so. No animals or birds were to be seen anywhere, except crows and magpies, and in occasional villages pariah dogs, fowls and pigs. At 2:30 we were safely housed in an inn at Kalgan.
Kalgan.
It would be a waste of time to write a description of Kalgan with Mr. Campbell's excellent Report so recently published. It will perhaps suffice if I merely add a few remarks from my own experience. My carters preferred to put up at an inu in the Hsia-pu (lower citadel) close to the Tung-Chiao (through bridge), which crosses the Kalgan river a couple of miles south of the Great Wall. The streets of this lower quarter are narrow and dirty, much impeded by traffic, which finds the numerous windings very difficult to negotiate. They are, however, picturesque, and the shop signs in the street unusually interesting.
The population of Kalgan is said to be now about 85,000, including Mongols and Chinese. A good number of these are Mahommedans, and have mosques of their own.
The Roman Catholics have no Mission here but a number of adherents scattered in the district round about. The storm of 1900 did not escape this part of the province, and a large band of fugitive missionaries had to toil over the desert to Urga to escape the Boxer violence. The town is garrisoned by 1,000 soldiers with the assistance of 150 police. Robberies are said to be very common, and the caging of poles which serve as a guard to most of the shop fronts seems highly necessary. An official told me that despite the mixture of races and creeds the population lived quite peaceably together. The Mongol portion is governed by the special officer called a Tutung, who controls also the Chakhars and other Mongol tribes. The director of the local bureau of Foreign Affairs is a Manchu by name E le be tai, a very agreeable man and a proficient English scholar (he was trained in the Peking University). In spite of alleged hard times this official, I learnt from an intimate friend of his, manages to make 5,000 dollars (500%) a-year, I understood that it was a billet which cost 2,000 dollars (2004) to obtain. One of these official writers is a proficient Russian scholar and acts as interpreter in official business between the Russians and Chinese authorities. Although the importance of Kalgan has somewhat diminished as regards trade since the Hankow tea trade was diverted to the Manchurian Railway, it is still an enormous distributing centre for Mongolian trade, and its importance will revive with the advent of the railway, and its former degree of prosperity is likely to be surpassed. In this connection it may be of interest to note that the price of land has already risen very considerably with the approach of the line. The tea trade which still remains is entirely in Russian hands; it is, I imagine, their object to continue to send a certain amount via Kalgan; of the many Russian merchants formerly established here there are said to be now only two left; these doubtless are designed to keep in touch with the place, besides which the extensive buildings and godowns half-an-hour away to the north may be of real use in the near future.
There is a branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank here, and I was informed that the way in which the Russians get on with the Chinese is quite extraordinary. Of course this is largely due to their delightful bonhomie, but experience also shows me that this is supplemented by lavish hospitality and an expensive system of presents. A branch of the Russian Post Office is also established here; mails cross the desert to Urga in sixteen days and are carried by a Cossack (Buriat).
Money orders and heavy parcels may be sent once a month by camel cart post under Cossack escort. A branch of the Imperial Post Office sends letters to Peking in two and a-half days. A motor car postal service has been organized between Kalgan and Urga, the distance to be covered in four days. A Chinese Company has been formed for the purpose; the only obstruction to the scheme comes from the Chinese Amban at Urga, and until this official is moved (his transfer is expected in a few months) the Company cannot begin work. The Amban bases his objections on the fact that the carrying trade of the Mongols will suffer, and states that the Bogdo at Urga is opposed to it. The Russian Bank at Urga stated to me that this was not the case, and that on the other hand the Bogdo favoured the scheme. I observed that I supposed Russians
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