PAO T'EO—THE SWEDISH MISSION-HOUSE—CHINESE SCHOOLS—CHINESE
INNS—CHINESE BURIAL—KUEI HUA CHENG—FRICTION WITH CARTERS—WE
LEAVE THE MONGOL COUNTRY—THE GREAT WALL.
The distance to Pao T'eo from the river bank was said to be fifteen li,
so we lost no time in starting to walk there, leaving the servants and
boatmen to bring our baggage to Messrs. Forbes's office. The fifteen li
cannot really have been much more than nine, for, walking quickly, we
got to the city gate in a little over three-quarters of an hour. Once
inside, we were very much struck by the difference between this and
the other cities we had seen; instead of crowded streets, with every
available yard of ground within the walls occupied, we here found lanes,
almost deserted except by a few children and pigs, and a large bit of
waste land inside the walls, absolutely untenanted. Not only had this
piece of ground been left severely alone, but two small suburbs, on the
south and east sides respectively, had sprung up outside. Why so much
ground had been originally enclosed no one could tell us.
While asking our way to the office of the wool firm, the Renki Yang Hong
as it was called, we suddenly found ourselves opposite the entrance of
the Swedish Mission-house. Needless to say, we went in at once, and were
heartily welcomed. While explaining who we were and where we had come
from, coffee was prepared by our hostess, and more delicious coffee I
have never tasted; but as we were anxious to make all arrangements for
starting the next morning, we could not waste time, but had to rush
off to the office, accompanied by the missionaries, who showed us the
way. Before leaving the house, however, they took us into their school,
where we found some five-and-twenty remarkably clean and happy-looking
children, who were being brought up to Christianity. When we entered
they were deep in study, all reading their lessons at the top of their
voices in every imaginable key. This method of committing the task to
memory is universal throughout China. As soon as any child has mastered
it, he or she holds up a hand, and is then called up to the desk to
repeat it to the master. An important difference is now observable
between the practice in native and foreign schools, for in the latter
they proceed just as we do at home, but the native teacher makes the
child stand with his back to the desk and his hands behind him, while
the master arms himself with a cane, which descends remorselessly at
the slightest slip.
It was not far to the Yang Hong, and old Chen-Lao-Pan's letter was
sufficient to ensure us every civility. Money was at once forthcoming,
and here, for the first time, we saw and became possessed of a "shoe" of
silver, a lump weighing rather more than fifty ounces; we also got some
more of the ordinary lumps, weighing from three to five ounces each,
for minor current expenses. We had not been long in the office, and had
not drunk more than three cups of tea each, when the baggage arrived.
One of the Swedes and Malcolm went off with it at once to look for an
inn, while Rijnhart and I stayed to complete the arrangements and settle
with the boatmen, who said that they had sold their vessel for Ts.5, a
considerable loss on the cost price, but which the hire had more than
covered.
[Illustration: ON THE ROAD IN CHINA.]
Malcolm had some difficulty in finding an inn, owing to large numbers of
soldiers being in the city at the time, but at last he was successful,
and also arranged with several carters who were on the look-out for a
job to come round to the mission-house to arrange terms. We had long
ago found out from Chen-Lao-Pan—who had spent many years in this part of
China—how long the cart journey to Pekin should take us and how much we
should pay; and, armed with this knowledge, our new friends and Rijnhart
were able to get an agreement signed for three carts to do the journey
in thirteen days for Ts.19 apiece, a most admirable clause being added
to the effect that, should they not arrive up to time, they would only
get Ts.9½. Often and often did we have cause to congratulate ourselves
on having had this inserted, and I strongly recommend any travellers in
China to get some guarantee of this kind whenever possible.
It was with the satisfactory feeling of a good day's work done that
we sat down to supper and enjoyed the luxury of an unlimited supply of
milk, such as we had not enjoyed since leaving India. After supper we
sat up late, our hosts singing in English, as well as in their native
tongue and Chinese, accompanying themselves or one another on the
guitar, without which no Swedish home is complete; however, we were
reluctantly compelled to say good-night, but not good-bye, as our hosts
promised to come and see us off on the morrow.
There was the usual hitch in starting, caused this time by the carters
discovering that they could not do the distance to Pekin in less than
fourteen days, their reason being that some carters who had arrived
the previous evening had told them that the road was now very bad. We
tried to make them stick to the original agreement, but eventually gave
way, and had a fresh one drawn up. Seeing that the usual time occupied
in this journey is seventeen days, their request for an extra day
was not unreasonable. We also had to change some silver into cash for
expenditure on the road, and this we entrusted to our landlord while we
took a stroll through the streets.
Pao T'eo does not appear to have any distinctive trade or products of
its own. One misses the splendid furs of Lancheo, the coal of Chong Wei,
and the forges of Shih-Tsui-Tsi; but one notices very large numbers of
Mongols, who bring in wool to the various firms. There were also numbers
of copper Mongol kettles, of which we wanted to buy some specimens,
but were told we could get them better and cheaper in Pekin. The shops
were very much larger and more well-to-do-looking than anything we had
hitherto seen, and in one grocer's we bought some first-rate sponge
cakes and a sort of apple jam, which was excellent. Eggs were fairly
dear, five cash apiece; in some places we had paid five cash for two,
but near the capital we had to pay as much as ten cash each. Fancy
new-laid eggs at fourpence a dozen in London!
However, the longest delays come to an end at last, and at 11 A.M.
on the 14th November we started on the last stage of our journey. The
missionaries walked some little way with us to the outskirts of the east
suburb, and before leaving they insisted on our promising to visit their
countrymen in the various stations we should pass through.
That evening we stopped at a very comfortable inn in a little town
called Salaki. Everywhere were signs that we were approaching the
capital; the streets were better looked after, and the inn was quite
the best we had yet seen.
All Chinese inns seem to be built on the same principle. One passes
through a wide entrance, on one side of which is the kitchen, on the
other a sort of eating-house, into the courtyard, which varies in size
according to the traffic. Opposite the entrance are the best rooms,
kept for distinguished guests, and all round are smaller rooms for
people of less importance, carters and servants. Every room is furnished
with a k'ang or stove bed, and the better class inns have cupboards,
tables, and chairs, but only in the best rooms. As long as one can get
into these one can make oneself fairly comfortable, but should they be
occupied one's lot is not an enviable one. Perhaps the most noticeable
sign of civilization was glass windows, which we saw for the first time
in Pao T'eo, and always daily afterwards. It was no longer necessary to
carry large stores of provisions—these were obtainable everywhere; but
in their place we had to carry an almost equal weight of cash, fifteen
thousand of which, weighing no less than ninety pounds, we brought from
Pao T'eo.
[Illustration: ON THE ROAD FROM PAO T'EO TO PEKIN.]
Next morning we started soon after sunrise. The shopkeepers were just
taking down their shutters as we left the inn, and the city was waking
up to its daily life; most of the people appeared to be engaged in
the silk trade, so I suppose the worm is cultivated somewhere in the
neighbourhood. Unfortunately, as we strolled on ahead of the carts we
took a wrong turning, and had to retrace our steps almost to the inn
before we found out where we had made the mistake. We then hurried after
the carts, only to find that their road and ours joined almost at the
very spot from which we had turned back. A stern chase is proverbially
a long one, and this was no exception to the rule.
Just outside the walls we saw a coffin which was being conveyed to
the corpse's native place for interment, and this was the means of our
learning a rather interesting Chinese custom. Every Chinaman has three
souls, and on death one of these returns to the city temple, one to
Hades, and one goes to the grave. With the last of these three a cock is
always carried, no matter how far the coffin may have to be conveyed.
In Southern China it is always a white cock, but in the north there
appears to be no hard-and-fast rule as to colour. When the corpse is
finally buried the unfortunate rooster is slain, and his spirit goes to
keep company with the soul in the coffin.
Every one has heard of the importance, in the eyes of the Chinaman,
of being buried in his own home, and the ships' companies do not fail
to take advantage of it, the passage-money for a dead man being many
times that of a live one. Before starting on one of these journeys the
greatest care is taken to ascertain an auspicious day, months often
elapsing before a sufficiently favourable opportunity will occur.
On the 16th November we arrived at Kuei Hua Cheng. As we approached the
town we passed a "big man." He was accompanied by three attendants,
one riding in front and two behind, and we were told that anybody of
importance generally rode in this fashion. Kuei Hua Cheng is a very
large town, and is remarkable for the absence of any sort of city wall,
a deficiency for which we could discover no reason. Instead of the
customary wall we found an extremely dirty entrance, for the road was
at least a foot deep in mud. It hardly seems credible that a town of
such importance—for besides being a large market it is utilised as the
point of departure for numerous caravans—should be so wanting in this
most essential respect. If this road were ever supplanted by a railway,
Kuei Hua Cheng would become a centre of immense commercial interest. The
sun was setting as we entered the town, and we had to make the most of
the short time remaining before the shops shut to lay in stores for the
next few days, when we should be crossing the Mongolian grass country,
and unable to purchase anything. Meat, bread, and kua mien were easily
procurable, although the latter was very much dearer than it had been
in Kansu, so it was still early when we had finished our supper and
turned in for the night. It had been our original intention to visit
the missionaries of this place, where I know we should have met with
that warm-hearted hospitality which they are ever ready to bestow upon
travellers. But supper over, the visions of an early start the next
morning and the cold outside our inn were arguments too strong to be
thrown aside.
Our carters met many friends at the inn, and determined to enjoy
themselves accordingly; much wine was drunk, and one of them indulged
in the luxury of a fight, all of which, though perhaps pleasant at the
time, tended to prevent a very early start in the morning; further delay
being caused by the carters suddenly thinking that they would like to
take a pickaxe with them, with which they could improve the road in bad
places. This delay enabled me to take a photograph of a very curious
Buddhist temple, which stands just at the main eastern entrance to the
town. To do this Rijnhart had to give me a leg-up on to the wall, and
it was not without some difficulty that I attained my object.
We were sorry not to be able to see more of this town, which has been
made famous by Huc and Gabet, Younghusband, and others; but here, as
throughout China, "absence without leave" and "reasons in writing" were
our bugbears. Especially did we regret not being able to see more of
this temple, which is known as "Wu Tai" Temple, and is covered from
top to bottom with figures of Buddha ranged in rows, and of a very
interesting Manchu city which lies about two miles north-east of Kuei
Hua Cheng, and is called Sin Chen, or the "New City." This was the only
Manchu city we had a chance of seeing, and its broad streets, planted
with trees, and frequented alike by men and women, would have been a
strong contrast to the ordinary Chinese town.
While still waiting for the pickaxe a large flock of our old friends
the sand-grouse passed over our heads, bringing to our minds the days of
plenty and days of hunger we had passed on the Chang. Almost immediately
the pickaxe arrived, and we made a fresh start, and for the first time
the road showed some signs of having had a little labour expended on it.
Previously there had been nothing but rough tracks through or round the
fields, or, when this became invisible, the carters would make a road
for themselves. The general direction was well known to them, and sooner
or later they would strike the track again; nor was it hard to tell
when they had done so, as a drop into a rut some eighteen inches deep
was an unmistakable sign that we were on the highroad to Pekin, which
is, in the opinion of the Chinese, incomparably the finest road in the
world. To-day, however, we came across some really neatly-made bridges
in excellent repair, but evidently only intended for travellers on foot
or on horseback, as, at one end or the other, there was invariably a
gap some two feet wide, effectually stopping wheeled traffic, so that
all carts had to go through the water. Ninety li was the day's journey,
taking us to Shih-Rong-Wa, where we stopped the night.
[Illustration: BUDDHIST TEMPLE. OUTSIDE KUEI HUA CHENG, CHINA.]
Next day was uneventful, but we ascended gradually to a little village
called Cha-Ha-Pa-La, 100 li, and got quite into the mountains again,
very different country from what we had passed through since leaving
Pao T'eo. The soil here appeared very rich, and every available patch
of land was cultivated. Every day we used to pass through numerous
villages, and in one we were lucky enough to come in for a theatrical
entertainment. No village is without its theatre, and performances are
frequent in the season; but as it was now the dull time we only saw one.
The theatre is always situated close to, generally opposite, the city
temple, a great convenience to the Taoist priests, who are also the
theatrical managers. The play did not appear exciting, and neither of
us understood a word of it, which was perhaps just as well, so we left
after a very few minutes. The theatres being in the open, no entrance
money is charged. The audience come and go as they please, but are
expected to drop a small contribution into a collection box which is
continually being handed round. This system has the further advantage
of enabling the actors to converse freely with friends below when not
otherwise engaged.
From Cha-Ha-Pa-La we made an early start, as we heard that the night's
halting-place was to be a fair-sized town, and we wanted to arrive
early so as to renew our supplies. We were pretty high up, and as it
was now very near the end of November, the mornings were uncommonly
cold. Rijnhart, Malcolm, Lassoo, and Esau all started walking, while
Shahzad Mir and I followed with the carts. Not far from the village we
crossed a low pass into a lovely wide valley, and a little further on
the party ahead managed to take a wrong turn. I went on with the carts,
and got to our midday halting-place about ten o'clock, and there I had
to sit and wait till the others should come up. I managed to make out,
by drawings in the dust and other devices, that there was another road
to Pekin, which the others must have taken, and by which they would get
to our destination in seventeen days. Not thinking they were likely
to be quite so long in finding out their mistake, I resolved to have
my breakfast and await their arrival. After a couple of hours' waiting
I was beginning to get a little bit anxious, and was considering what
steps I had better take if, by any chance, they did not arrive before
nightfall. However, at about one o'clock they hove in sight, so I
immediately had the mules harnessed, while Shahzad Mir warmed up some
tea.
In a few minutes Rijnhart and Malcolm were at the inn, but the two men
were some way behind, and while waiting for them to come up, I heard
how they had managed to miss us. It appeared that, when they missed the
road, all the Chinese they had met had misled them by saying that they
were right, and it was not till late in the day that they got into the
proper road and arrived at the halting-place, after walking fully thirty
miles.
"We were soon ready for a fresh start, but the carters, anxious for any
excuse to back out of their agreement as long as the fault could be laid
at our door, were very reluctant, but threats to cut off half their hire
prevailed, and we were quickly on the move. The march was a long one,
over rolling grassy plains, out of Chinese into Mongolian country. As
the sun set a cold wind rose, and for some time we sat shivering on the
carts. The carts were travelling very fast, as the going was excellent.
We thought we should never get to our destination, but all the time we
were buoyed up with the thought that, at all events, we should get to
a big place where there was sure to be a good inn. At last they told
us that Ho-Lo-Si-T'ai, our goal, was close by, and in a few minutes we
saw, not the town with castellated walls that we had imagined, but two
miserable wayside inns with large yards full of sheep and camels, as
unpromising a spectacle as one could wish to see.
On inquiry, things proved even worse than they had at first appeared,
for both inns were crammed full, and we could not find a spot to sleep
in. At last we heard that there was a room in a small house close by, so
round we went, only to find it tenanted by a man, two women, a sheep,
and some children, a fair supply for a place about twelve feet square,
but into it we squashed, until we had revived our circulation, and then,
after a considerable amount of squabbling, we arranged that we would
sleep in the carts, while the carters occupied the already overcrowded
room, for the simple reason that the carters flatly refused to take us
any further unless they slept inside the house and we outside. Perhaps,
after all, the cold blast was preferable to dirt and a close atmosphere.
The following day our road lay over more grassy plains, in which
were herds of antelope—called by the Chinese the "yellow sheep"—some
sand-grouse, and a few great bustards, none of which we shot. There
were several Mongol encampments, with their neat little circular
dwelling-places and sheep-folds, much more civilized than those we had
seen in the far west.
That evening we left the Mongol country, possibly for ever, and got into
the cultivated district again. The change was very sudden, and showed
us admirably how the Chinese are slowly, but surely, encroaching upon
the country of their pastoral neighbours. Cha-Ha-La-Po, our home for the
night, was an insignificant little place, and chiefly to be remembered
for the fact that we there managed to get rid of some six hundred very
inferior cash, brought from Shih-Tsui-Tsi.
At noon the next day we had to change our axles, the roads from here
being much narrower than they had hitherto been; and while doing so we
had a row with the carters. A crowd promptly assembled, but Rijnhart
soon managed to get them on our side, and we gained our point. We were
now well within our time, and the carters knew that they could fulfil
their contract without difficulty, so they loitered over the axle
changing and made a very short march to a brand-new inn, where we put
up in an excellent, clean, and airy room. There was still plenty of
daylight left, of which we took advantage to have a real good wash in
warm water.
[Illustration: MONGOL ENCAMPMENT.]
As if to make up for this early halt, we were awakened soon after
midnight, and started about 1 A.M.; but this energy, we had every
reason to believe, was owing to a desire on the part of our jehus to
pass through the next village in the dark, owing to monetary or some
other form of trouble they were in there. At first it was very dark,
and as our road was very rough we went stumbling along till the moon
came out from behind some heavy clouds. Rising rapidly, we were soon on
a small pass, where some pious individual, in hopes of future reward,
had built a neat little temple. The descent on the far side was steep,
and the rocky gorge through which our road lay was very picturesque in
the brilliant moonlight.
About daylight we got down to the bed of a stream, which we crossed
and recrossed several times till we arrived at the small town of
Hsing-Ping-Ho, the gate of which forms part of the Great Wall of China.
We had already seen the Great Wall, near Chong Wei, where, however, it
is little more than a turf embankment, but as we approached the capital
we saw how it gradually improves, both in its original construction and
its later preservation; but even now we were very much disappointed,
and were unable to realize how it ever managed to gain its world-wide
reputation.
At Hsing-Ping-Ho the wall is of earth, faced with brick, generally
not more than eight to ten feet high, and quite narrow, very different
from the imposing structure one had always pictured it to be, and which
we were yet destined to see. But although we could not yet look upon
the wall with the respect one had hoped to feel for it, neither of
us could help admiring the dogged perseverance with which it has been
carried over mountain tops and down valleys, the most forbidding natural
obstacles being treated as nought in comparison with the orders of the
emperor.
After breakfast our road ran parallel to the stream we had crossed in
the morning, which had now grown to a considerable size, and was called
the Wo-Ku-Shan-Ho. Every few miles we passed a large walled city,
evidently very old, and now almost entirely deserted; they must all have
seen better times and been places of importance—probably about the time
that the Great Wall was being built. I photographed the walls of one of
these cities, and the temple outside tenanted by some wooden figures.
The name of the city was Si-Yang Ho.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OUTSIDE SI-YANG HO.]
SHOWING STAGES FROM PAO T'EO TO PEKIN.
LI.
14th November.—Pao T'eo to Tour-tsi 40
" " " Sa-la-ki 50
15th " " Mi-tour-chon 30
" " " Ta-ri-tsi 80
16th " " Peh-sie-ki 50
" " " Kuei Hua Cheng 70
17th " " Shih-Rong-Wa 90
18th " " Cha-Ha-Pa-La 100
19th " " Mongol Camp (long) 50
" " " Ho-Lo-Si-T'ai 70
20th " " Mongol Camp (short) 50
" " " Cha-Ha-La-Po 80
21st " " Cha-ka-ri 60
" " " Teo-tao-keo 35
22nd " " Hsing-Ping-Ho 75
" " " Uen-tsi-tao-ri 50
23rd " " Io-kia-t'ong 65
" " " Nant-sing-ho 75
24th " " Shuen-hua-fu 40
" " " Siao-Si-Fu 35
25th " " Ki-mio-si 35
" " " Sa-cheng 45
" " " Huai-lai-hsien 60
26th " " Cha-tao 50
" " " Nan-Kou 45
27th " " Sha-ho 50
" " " Pekin 45
From Pekin to Tien Tsin is 80 miles.