1929-10-05 — Page 13

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MOTORING SUPPLEMENT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1929.

TO CHINA'S GREAT

WALL

Strenuous Journey Through Nan Kau Pass."

were classified together) and built the Wall. This was in the third con- tury before Christ and at the time that Hannibal was operating in the plalus of Italy.

Road Conditions.

Tyre Destroyers Spread.

CAUSE OF PUNCTURES.

Disgruntled lift beggars who have been refused a ride by mo- torista are blamed for being the cause of a lot of tyre punctures in U.S. Disappointed at being left, they work off their spite on mo- torists in general by strewing nails or anything that will harm" tyres on the roadway.

after which it was discovered that SPITEFUL WALKERS. the Union Jack on the car's wing was upside down. That put right and the Morris being above supers- tition, we went out pass the Summer Palace, which was bullt by the late The Wall and Its Object.

Dowager Empress out of a vote for If the finished Wall is the most the Navy. Late we went over two extraordinary of man's efforts in wooden bridges, which cracked un- the world, the mode of its building fortably under our weight, and then must excel even the finished work, made a detour round a third which for the Wall, which is 1,600 was under repair; these were the miles long and 201 high only incidents in a journey over by 20ft. thick, and extends from rather bad track In billows of dust. the BCD to the borders of Then came the Middle Ages, with Tibet, was built in three years. a walled and fortified town, on en We believe in these days that wetering and leaving which the car's know something of organisation, permits had to be shown to an but can we show anything to rival armed guard, while an executioner this elfort when it is remembered stood by with hia' sword offico that it was.achieved without mo- and Interested himself in the The Californian highways au- dern appliances, that it is largely strange motor with its six wheels, thorities have a machine for clear- as perfect now as when built, and slinging his sword ever his backing the roads of this litter. This that it is over two thousand years the better to examine it. There is a large electro-magnet swung ..old? It is difficult to realise what followed miles of rock-strewn road, from a motor chassis. As it is It must have meant to maintain this an introduction to what was to come driven over the road the magnet army of workers, their food, and the and then the small town of Nan attracts all from objects near it and manufacture and transportation of Kau at the foot of the pass. We collects them in. It exerts such ballding material in a country of stopped in Nan Kau to fill up with an attraction for nails, horseshoes high hills, almost readless, and petrol and oil, and started the ten- and fragments of steel or from that watered only by an occasional stream or well. If we have learned mile climb with our objective the they are sometimes jerked out pass-head and the Great Wall. when embedded deep in the road much, we must have forgotten a

súrface. good deal, or may it be that the alf- ference between then and now is only that of the revard for human that there is little in the pass to Now it can be said at the start life?

contend with so far as gradients Though generally speaking the or corners are concerned, and noth object of the Wall was the with-ing to compare in either of these holding of invasion, yet it was dir-respects with for example, Judean ected against the invaders' ponies Hills, in Palestine, over which our rather than against their riders, mechanical transport operated re- The Central Asians then, as now, glarly in the War. The were horsemen, which the Chinese gradient is little steeper than 1 in have never been, and it was when, and there is only one corner for the former were mounted that the which the reverse rear had to be Chinese feared them. The Wall in used. The test of the pass lies in those days was garrisoned in each its surface, which is awful, for the of its watch towers and communica- rains have washed away the soll tion was maintained with Peking through the ages, leaving rounded by beacons, by which the garrisons boulders which stand up every of the plains were warned in time where to a foot or more above what to concentrate on any threatened is left of the track, while these are point before the invadere could get reinforced by great stones which enough ponies over, or through, to have rolled down from the hills continue their advance. Prob- above. For more than a mile the Its · most successful track led up the stream bed and. abl passage of Arms was the for miles It ascended in steps built thegreat Jenghizat about every twelve feet and cach defeat of Khan, who, though passing the one six to nine inches high. Fre Great Wall, was turned back by the quent delays were caused by the Chinese on an inner line at Chu strings of transport mules and other Yung Kwon, where the arch, traffic which, for countless can- is said to commemorate their suc- turies, have used this famous pass. cess. Unfortunately for the Chin- esc, however, the invader had the wisdom only to feint, again here, while he passed with his army at a point to one alde which the Chinese had forgotten guard.

This view gives a good idea of the difficult character of the track throughout the Nan Kau Pass followed by the Morris- Commercial six-wheeler on its journey to the Great Wall.

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A contributor has sent us the mountains beyond which lie Kalgan following interesting account of a and the wide stretches of Mongolia. remarkable journey undertaken in From the earliest times this pass Northern China to test the capa has been the connecting link be bilities of a Morris-Commercial six- tween China and Central Asin, wheeler. The route chosen lay either for trade or war, and it through the Nan Kau Pass up to winds its way upward through old the Great Wall of China, and the chains of fortification which crown accompanying photographs give a ridge after ridge up to the Great good idea of the "formidable Wall of China. obstacles which

over China,

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the machine As with India, so it was with Buccessfully negotiated during a journey of exceptional dificulty China; the invasions of the past that has caused great interest all were from the north, and it was to hold back the nomade of the in- terior, the Mongols and Tartars, that Ch'in Shih Hoang, the first Emperor of a united China, collect- ed 700,000 criminals and merchants (in those enlightened, times the two

The Nan Kau Pass is the Khyber of China. From Peking the plains "extend north for thirty-five miles and then open into the chain of

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The Morris ran faultlessly, creep- ing steadily up, over, or round the obstacles and rarely hindered by any. Twice only was it necessary to move a stone into the way of a wheel to provide a stepping stone by which to mount a boulder; other- wise the car asked for and 'received no help. Too much cannot be said for the virtue of the secondary gear box, for much of the climb Was with the use of this, and in third gear, leaving always two lower ratios still in hand. Lowest gear was occasionally used, but only to

But to come from war to peace. The pass still is the main route for the camel and mule and donkey caravans, travelling from the south with tea and other things and from the north with skins and grain. There are few camels on it by day, for they are not allowed then on enable a particularly bad boulder the main route, for the mules object or step to be mounted, and then to them, while at night they are only out of consideration for the parked in different compounds. Though there is still a constant springs. The value of this extra box for saving the springs was one Stream of animals over the pass, of the outstanding demonstrations much of the merchandise is of the run. now deflected to the railway, which latter is a remarkable

Our way wound up the magnificent piece of engineering, constructed valley, its hills crowned by succes- entirely by Chinese, British or sive chains of Wall till wa passed. American trained, and it is a round a last shoulder, across a bare notable feat of embankment, bridg-ledge of rock on which the car ing and tunnelling.

inust have stood over at 20 degrees, The following description of the and we were in front of the Great puss may be of interest: it is by Wall, through which we passed a

moment later. "Leer Roy Chapman Andrews, of the wiches followed and a detailed, look American Mongolian Expedition, and appeared in a North China over the car, which was in perfect

order. Then the start back wa newspaper. His cars returned down made. the pass; on the outward journey they did not face it, but were sent up the pass by rail "The Nan Kau Pass, where the Great Wall was built to keep the Mongol rai- an enforced speed trial, for dusk ders out of Peking, very nearly kept us out also. The road was such. a nightmare of rocks and boulders that I shudder even now to write about it. At any moment I expect ed to see some of the cars crash. How anything on wheels designed

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and sand-

The Return Journey.»

The remainder of the run was

was coming on and the gates of Peking City are shut at night, and those that imitate the Unwise Vir- gins may remain till the morning. So the race started and the odds against lengthened when a wrong taken which ended in track was

to travel on a road could stand the nothing, and the return of a mile punishment those cars received was had to be made. Later, the wood- beyond my conception. But they en bridges. which had cracked in kept steadily on, and at long last we the morning cracked again worse, came out on the road at the foot of but we were safely over with the the pass."

driver's foot ready to stand on the accelerator if anything gave.·'

Start of the Trial, (

Beyond these delays and a slip- So much for the scene of our ping back in the villages, the trial. The pass has not, so far na speedometer set at a steady thirty, is known, been previously climbed we were at Peking in half an hour by any vehicle under its own power, under the time estimated, and the either laden or empty. A few cars gates through the fifteen-yard thick have been dragged over it with wall were open. Some Chinese ropes in order that, they might be Army Transport was going in, sold in the plains beyond, but it has and we were congratulating our remained at that, and it was to try selves when the last of it passed cut the first Morris six-wheeler to through and the great fron bound arrive in North China that our ex-gate swung to in front of the radia- pedition was organised. The load tor. Government transport might was its owner, either interested go in after hours but we could not, Britishers and two Chinese, and was for the closing time had been wrong- made up to over a ton with sand-ly ascertained and the

gate bad, bags. By fitting single in place of officially, shut an hour before. twin tyres the track was reduced

So the engine was switched off to little more than that of the or dinary cart which is four feet wide, and the linguists of the party sat The wisdom of this was seen later to work with the telephone while in the pass, which in many places the nonlinguists returned to the was only just wide enough for the beer and sandwichco, and after half an hour the gate once more vehicle to squeeze through.

opened and we were courteously told We left the Wagon Lita Hotel in "You may pass with your car- Peking after breakfast on April 6, rlage.". and the thirty-five miles to Nan Kan

This finished an enjoyable day village was done in about two houra without pressing, for the engine was and an exacting trial of the Morris, which had behaved faultlessly. hardly ran in, so the journey was The time on the ascent of the pass taken ensily.

had been five houra, less some three- The first three miles is within Pe-quarters of an hour at least apent king, which is an immense city, and in taking photographs, and again at the day started badly for the auper Icast twenty additional halts, with stitious by aur passing two funerals engine stopped, while frightened in all their brilliance of turnout,mules were filed past or recovered

The "nailpicker," as it is called, month. Camping gear and provi- travels about a thousand miles a

sions are carried, and the driver camps just where ho finishes the day's run, i'

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excepting Massachusetts. York has a mile of state highway for every 189 cars and Illinois à mile for overy 146.

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from their fright up the hillside. The return down the pass had taken two and a half hours.

In conclusion lest this descrip- tion, which centres on the Morris's performance, be attributed to ulter- lor motive, it may be wise to add that the writer has no intereat, other than that of nationality, in that or in any other make of motor vehicle.

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