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Roman Catholics and the China Inland Mission have each established a mission- station here. The former is maintained by natives and there is no foreign super- intendent: they claim a great number of adherents. The Protestants were nearly all destroyed in 1900, but are beginning to rally again. The people of Shansi are by nature intensely conservative, and as a consequence backward, even by comparison with the neighbouring provinces. As His Majesty's Government know, it was the obstinacy of the Shansi provincials which prevented the Peking Syndicate from working their Mining Concession in the south-east, and this attitude is representative of the whole province.
In the districts round Tatungfu the people are very suspicions of foreigners, and their fears are easily fanned to open acts of hostillity, such as when the missionaries at Tsoyun were attacked in the spring of 1907 and would have been massacred but for the timely and accidental arrival of a German officer, who shot some of the rioters. This feeling of hatred is still latent in Tatangfu, inhabitants are extremely ignorant, and education has made little progress here, The though there are a few good Chinese schools. The ladies of Tatungfu are famous for the smallness of their feet, a fame which their ingrained conservatism has persuaded them to set at defiance any Imperial utterances on the subject of anti-foot binding. The district is enormously rich in coal, which is hardly worked, while the best, the smokeless, has had to be abandoned because of the water in the mines. A certain amount of coal is still mined, but in consequence of the water is now much dearer than it used to be, is used throughout the whole district, and is carted for many miles over the mountains. It Nothing has been heard here of a railway from Puchow, in the south of the province, to Taiyuanfe and Tatunglu, but the extension of the Kalgan line to Kweihuacheng is much discussed and expected to take the route south of the Great Wall in order to tap the coal wealth of Tatungfu.
The chief officer of the town is a Prefect, Chinese, not Manchu. The town is of the usual pattern, and has four gates and a bell tower in the centre of the city. Each wall is 14 miles long. The garrisou is said to be 120 soldiers of the old pattern. The streets of the town, though dirty, are well made and sometimes broad, while there is a great deal of decoration in the way of pailous and towers. However much the people
are said to be anti-foreign, I was received with the greatest respect everywhere. They are like children and are said to believe any story or rumour, however improbable; for instance, it was recently rumoured that the province had been sold en bloc to the English, who were coming to take possession, and each household in Tatungfu was to house and feed one Englishman at its own expense; such rumours are readily believed.
April 15.-The cart wheels had to be changed again last night to fit the road to Kweihuacheng. Rising steadily to the hills to the west we penetrated into these by the valley of a small tributary of the Yuho with a bleak and rocky country on either side. Very few hamlets and they of the poorest were to be seen. hours we reached Yunkang where there is a very ancient temple cut and built into the After travelling four mountain side. This temple known as " Shih fo ssu" (" Stone joss temple") is said to date from 2,000 years ago, and the appearance of the tiles certainly bears this out. Little money is spent on its upkeep; the Mongols patronize it en route for Wutaishan, but whereas they used to spend much money here they now keep most of their wealth for the Wutai Monasteries. Rockhill writes: 12 miles north-west of Tatungfu, are curious rock temples, a bed of sandstone in which "At Yunkang, a small village about a number of caved temples have been dug, and enormous statues of the Buddha and saints sculptured within them out of the living rock, Good authority states that the temples were built in the fifth century, a.b."
Leaving Yukang we kept up the sandy valley of the Shihliho, and three hours later reached Kanshanhsien a small district town with delapidated gates and walls. We pushed on the same night to Yünhsi a wretched village 10 miles to the west. nightfall we passed many caravans of camels just setting out on their all night march. After They were bringing beans, salt, soda, bricks, wool, skins, and liquorice from Kweihua- cheng, those we passed travelling the same direction as ourselves were carrying tea and cloth to Kweihuacheng.
April 16.-Keeping due west on the southern slopes of the valley for two hours, we crossed this when abreast of Tsoyun or Tsowei, a small walled town a mile to our left and turned north-west over the hills. These are much broken by gullies and ravines and are absolutely devoid of trees; the road winds past a number of decayed villages all with a poverty stricken appearance. We reached Hwangtuliang in the evening. The district can at least boast of good inns and this is probably due to the amount of traffic along the road. A great feature of the country side are the distance marks like
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small towers on the mountain peaks. The smaller ones mark the I li, the larger the 5 li distance. Tsoyun is the centre of a coal producing district and here it is extraordinary cheap, the same amount which in Peking costs 11 dollars costing only 21 dollars here.
April 17-An hour and a-half's travelling brought to the south gate of the large prefectural city of Sopingfu lor Yuwei. The former name appears to be that given to the whole prefectural district, the latter being the name for the town. The city is a walled one of the usual pattern with four gates and a bell tower, The walls are in good condition and each is about half a-mile long, but on the north side the sand has drifted to such an extent against the wall that there would be no difficulty in climbing on to this from the outside. The population is said to be between 40,000 and 50,000, but I fancy this is exaggerated. The city is poor owing to opium and drink. Roman Catholic and China Inland Mission Stations. The people are not hostile, but are like the people of Shansi densely stupid. The Mandarin visits the missions from time to time and inquires as to the attitude of people towards them. The town is visited by great numbers of Mongols who are lodged, as in Tatungfu, in special ions. There is a branch of the Chinese Imperial Post here. It is thought that Sopingfu will not be on the extended railway from Kalgan to Kweihuacheng,
There are
This, it is said, will probably run (doubtless by the valley of the Yüho after leaving Tatungfu) via Ningyuenting or Föngschönuting to Kweihuncheng. There is said to be a garrison of 360 soldiers armed with old-fashioned rifles. Coal is the chief fuel and is very cheap; all wood has to come up from Ningwu a long way to the south. The district is famous for its mill stones which are exported to some distance. A good pair costs 31.
Passing underneath the bell tower high up on the walls of which were five cages full of old shoes testifying to the mild sway exercised by successive prefects we left the town by the north gate and kept due north up the broad and sandy valley of a stream which we forded from time to time. A picturesque feature of the road were a number of poor tents under whose scanty shade groups of dirty weary pilgrims to the Wutaishan were lying with outstretched limbs trying to find a shelter from the burning April noonday sun. Some of the villages along the road consist entirely of inns and temples both of which are doubtless successful in extracting a large portion of the pious pilgrims' store of money. We passed another instance of tree worship; a scroll hanging to the tree informed passers by "I will grant the wishes of whoever prays to me." Soon after leaving Sopingfu the ridge on our left was crowned with the many towers of the Great Wall of China and the valley gradually narrowing we reached the wall at the important customs station of Shahokou where a garrison of 300 men armed with the old-fashioned rifle is kept. The wall here is in a great state of decay being for the most part a long grass grown mound of mud with towers at intervals. Passing through the gateway which is of little use as horsemen can without difficulty cross the wall elsewhere we continued down the Shaho valley, and ascended a bleak stretch of ground with no sign of vegetation anywhere. After crossing other ridges we slept the night at Ningyuan continuing on the morrow over steep passes and down narrow rocky winding gorges, for most of the way in which the road hung over a precipice. Though the ground looks stony and unfertile peasants were trying to plough the mountain slopes almost up to the top of the passes. Close to the village of Yang- puyausze we came across another instance of tree worship, the tree being decorated with scrolls" Pray to me and ye shall receive," "Do not forget to offer me candles," I am as good as a temple." A peasant standing near explained how the tree came to be worshipped.
Once upon a time a man was walking along the road and was chased by a wolf. He fled to the tree, climbed and was saved; hence out of gratitude he originated the worship of the tree. In the inn yard at Yangpuyausze were four ordinary carts bearing little white and red flags. These carts were conveying money from Kweihuacheng to Kalgan. If the carters lose the money (there is no guard and the whole countryside knows what the carts are carrying) they have to make it good themselves, a haphazard way of doing things. There are few villages in these mountain districts; one passes a few scattered huts from time to time and in many places the natives have scooped out dwellings in the lower cliffs, houses which are doubtless warm, but which entirely lack ventilation. Few of the natives can read or write. At Yangpuyausze the schoolmaster was an aged man, his salary he said was 17. a year and he had only four pupils. The ouly books he can himself read are such as the smallest child in Peking can read with case. Superstition is rampart as I have shown in the case of tree worship. Over the lintel of the door to the main room of the inn were two little bits of yellow paper with
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