28 chapters
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28 chapters
INTRODUCTORY
INTRODUCTORY
The scheme . Why I am walking across Interior China . Leaving Singapore . Ignorance of life and travel in China . The "China for the Chinese" cry . The New China and the determination of the Government . The voice of the people . The province of Yün-nan and the forward movement . A prophecy . Impressions of Saigon . Comparison of French and English methods . At Hong-Kong . Cold sail up the Whang-poo . Disembarkation . Foreign population of Shanghai . Congestion in the city . Wonderful Shanghai.
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
To Ichang, an everyday trip . Start from Shanghai, and the city's appearance . At Hankow . Meaning of the name . Trio of strategic and military points of the empire . Han-yang and Wu-ch'ang . Commercial and industrial future of Hankow . Getting our passports . Britishers in the city . The commercial Chinaman . The native city: some impressions . Clothing of the people . Cotton and wool . Indifference to comfort . Surprise at our daring project . At Ichang . British gunboat and early morning rout
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
Gloom in Ichang Gorge . Lightning's effect . Travellers' fear . Impressive introduction to the Gorges . Boat gets into Yangtze fashion . Storm and its weird effects . Wu-pan: what it is . Heavenly electricity and its vagaries . Beautiful evening scene, despite heavy rain . Bedding soaked . Sleep in a Burberry . Gorges and Niagara Falls compared . Bad descriptions of Yangtze . World of eternity . Man's significant insignificance . Life on board briefly described . Philosophy of travel . Houseboat
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
The following is a rough list of the principal rapids to be negotiated on the river upward from Ichang. One of the chief discomforts the traveler first experiences is due to a total ignorance of the vicinity of the main rapids, and often, therefore, when he is least expecting it perhaps, he is called upon by the laoban to go ashore. He has then to pack up the things he values, is dragged ashore himself, his gear follows, and one who has no knowledge of the language and does not know the ropes is
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Scene at the Rapid . Dangers of the Yeh T'an . Gear taken ashore . Intense cold . Further preparation . Engaging the trackers . Fever of excitement . Her nose is put to it . Struggles for mastery . Author saves boatman . Fifteen-knot current . Terrific labor on shore . Man nearly falls overboard . Straining hawsers carry us over safely . The merriment among the men . The thundering cataract . Trackers' chanting . Their life . "Pioneer" at the Yeh T'an . The Buffalo Mouth Reach . Story of the "Wo
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Beginning of the overland journey . The official halo around the caravan . The people's goodbyes . Stages to Sui-fu . A persistent coolie . My boy's indignation, and the sequel . Kindness of the people of Chung-king . The Chung-king Consulate . Need of keeping fit in travelling in China . Walking tabooed . The question of "face" and what it means . Author runs the gauntlet . Carrying coolie's rate of pay . The so-called great paved highways of China, and a few remarks thereon . The garden of Chi
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Szech-wan people a mercenary lot . Adaptability to trading . None but nature lovers should come to Western China . The life of the Nomad . The opening of China, and some impressions . China's position in the eyes of her own people . Industrialism, railways, and the attitude of the populace . Introduction of foreign machinery . Different opinions formed in different provinces . Climate, and what it is responsible for . Recent Governor of Szech-wan's tribute to Christianity . New China and the new
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Chinese and simplicity of speech . Author and his caravan stopped . Advice to travelers . Farewell to Sui-fu . The postal service and tribute to I.P.O. Rushing the stages . Details of journey . Description of road to Chao-t'ong-fu . Coolie's pay . My boy steals vegetables . Remarks on roads and railways . The real Opening of China . How the foreigner will win the confidence of the Chinese . Distances and their variability . Calculations uprooted . Author in a dilemma . The scenery . Hard going .
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
Szech-wan and Yün-nan . Coolies and their loads . Exports and imports . Hints to English exporters . Food at famine rates . A wretched inn at Wuchai . Author prevents murder . Sleeping in the rain . The foreign cigarette trade . Poverty of Chao-t'ong . Simplicity of life . Possible advantages of Chinese in struggle of yellow and white races . Foreign goods in Yün-nan and Szech'wan . Thousands of beggars die . Supposed lime poisoning . Content of the people . Opium not grown . Prices of prepared
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Digression from travel . How rebellions start in China . Famous Boxer motto . Way of escape shut off . Riots expected before West can be won into the confidence of China . Boxerism and students of the Government Reform Movement . Author's impressions formed within the danger zone . More Boxerism in China than we know of . Causes of the Chao-t'ong Rebellion . Halley's Comet brings things to a climax . Start of the rioting . Arrival of the military . Number of the rebels . They hold three impregna
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Men who came through Yün-nan twenty years ago wrote of its doctors and its medicines, its poverty and its infanticide. There seemed little else to speak of. Although the tribes were here then—and in a rawer state even then than they are at the present time—little was known about them, and men had not yet developed the cult of putting their opinions upon this most absorbing topic into print. To-day, however, scores of men in Europe are eagerly devouring every line of copy they can get hold of bea
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Revolting sights compensated for by scenery . Most eventful day in the trip . Buying a pony, and the reason for its purchase . Author's pony kicks him and breaks his arm . Chastising the animal, and narrow escape from death . Rider and pony a sorry sight . An uneasy night . Reappearance of malaria . Author nearly forced to give in . Heavy rain on a difficult road . At Ta-shui-tsing . Chasing frightened pony in the dead of night . Bad accommodation . Lepers and leprosy . Mining . At Kiang-ti . Tw
21 minute read
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Yün-nan's chequered career . Switzerland of China . At Hong-sh[=i]h-ai . China's Golden Age in the past . The conservative instinct of the Chinese . How to quiet coolies . Roads . Dangers of ordinary travel in wet season . K'ung-shan and its mines . Tong-ch'uan-fu, an important mining centre . English and German machinery . Methods of smelting . Protestants and Romanists in Yün-nan . Arrival at Tong-ch'uan-fu . Missionaries set author's broken arm . Trio of Europeans . Author starts for the prov
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BOOK II.
BOOK II.
The second part of my trip was from almost the extreme east to the extreme west of Yün-nan—from Tong-ch'uan-fu to Bhamo, in British Burma. The following was the route chosen, over the main road in some instances, and over untrodden roads in others, just as circumstances happened: I also made a rather extended tour among the Miao tribes, in country untrodden by Europeans, except by missionaries working among the people....
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Stages to the capital . Universality of reform in China . Political, moral, social and spiritual contrast of Yün-nan with other parts of the Empire . Inconsistencies of celestial life . Author's start for Burma . The caravan . To Che-chi . Dogs fighting over human bones . Lai-t'eo-p'o: highest point traversed on overland journey . Snow and hail storms at ten thousand feet . Desolation and poverty . Brutal husband . Horse saves author from destruction . The one hundred li to Kongshan . Wild, rugg
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
YÜN-NAN-FU, THE CAPITAL. Access to Yün-nan-fu . Concentrated reform . Tribute to Hsi Liang . Conservatism and progress . The Tonkin-Yün-nan Railway . The Yün-nan army . Author's views in 1909 and 1910 contrasted . Phenomenal forward march, and what it means . Danger of too much drill . International aspect on the frontier . The police . Street improvements . Visit to the gaol, and a description . The Young Pretender to the Chinese throne . How the prison is conducted . The schools . Visit to the
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Stages to Tali-fu . Worst roads yet experienced . Stampede among ponies . Hybrid crowd at Anning-cheo . Simplicity of life of common people . Does China want the foreigner? Straits Settlements and China Proper compared . China's aspect of her own position . Renaissance of Chinese military power . Europeans NOT wanted in the Empire . Emptiness of the lives of the common people . Author erects a printing machine in Inland China . National conceit . Differences in make-up of the Hua Miao and the Ha
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
Lu-fêng-hsien and its bridge . Magnificence of mountains towards the capital . Opportunity for Dublin Fusiliers . Characteristic climbing. Crockery crash and its sequel . Mountain forest . Changeableness of climate . Wayside scene and some reflections . Is your master drunk? Babies of the poor . Loess roads . Travelers, and how they should travel . Wrangling about payment at the tea-shop . The lying art among the Chinese . Difference of the West and East . Strange Chinese characteristic . Easter
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
A bumptious official . Ignominious contrasts of two travelers. Diminishing respect for foreigners in the Far East . Where the European fails . His maltreatment of Orientals . Convicts on the way to death . At Ch'u-hsiony-fu . Buffaloes and children . Exasperating repetition met in Chinese home life . Unæsthetic womanhood . Quarrymen and careless tactics . Scope for the physiologist . Interesting unit of the city's humanity . Signs of decay in the countryside . Carrying the dead to eternal rest .
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Stampede of frightened women . To the Eagle Nest . An acrobatic performance, and some retaliation at the author's expense . Over the mountains to Pu-pêng A magnificent storm, and a description . In a "rock of ages." Hardiness of my comrades . Early morning routine and some impressions . Unspeakable filth of the Chinese . Lolo people of the district . Physique of the women . Aspirations towards Chinese customs . Skilless building . Mythological, anthropological, craniological and antediluvian dis
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Peculiar forebodings of early morning . A would-be speaker of English . The young men of Yün-nan and the Reform Movement . Teachers of English . Remarks on methods adopted . Disregard of the customs of centuries . A rushing Szech-wanese . Missionaries and the Educational Movement . Christianity and the position of the foreigner . Is the Chinese racially inferior to the European? Interesting opinion . Peace of Europe and integrity of China . Chao-chow cook gets a bad time . The author's levée. Na
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
Stages to the Mekong Valley . Hardest part of the walking tour . Author as a medical man . Sunday soliloquy . How adversity is met . Chinese life compared with early European ages . Womens enthusiasm over the European . A good send-off . My coolie Shanks, the songster . Laughter for tears . Pony commits suicide . Houses in the forest district . Little encampments among the hills, and the way the people pass their time . Treacherous travel . To Hwan-lien-p'u . Rest by the river, and a description
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
The mountains of Yün-nan . Wonderful scenery . Among the Mohammedans . Sorry scene at Ch'u-tung . A hero of a horrid past . Infinite depth of Chinese character . Mule falls one hundred and fifty yards, and escapes unhurt . Advice to future travelers . To Shayung . We meet Tibetans on the mountains . Chinese cruelty . Opium smoker as a companion . Opium refugees . One opinion only on the subject . Mission work among smokers and eaters. Mere words are a feeble means to employ to describe the mount
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CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death . Stages to Tengyueh . The River Mekong, Bridge described . An awful ascent . On-the-spot conclusions . Roads needed more than railways . At Shui-chai . A noisy domestic scene at the place where I fed . Disregard of the value of female life . Remarkable hospitality of the gentry of the city . Hard going . Lodging at a private house on the mountains . Waif of the world entertains the stranger . From Ban-chiao to Yung-ch'ang . Buffaloes and journalistic ignorance
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
To Lu-chiang-pa . Drop from 8,000 feet to 2,000 feet . Shans meet for the first time . Dangers of the Salwen Valley exaggerated . How reports get into print . Start of the climb from 2,000 feet to over 8,000 feet . Scenery in the valley . Queer quintet of soldiers . Semi-tropical temperature . My men fall to the ground exhausted . A fatiguing day . Benighted in the forest . Spend the night in a hut . Strong drink as it affects the Chinese . Embarrassing attentions of a kindly couple . New Year f
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CHAPTER XXIV.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Travel up the Salwen Valley . My motive for travelling and how I travel . Valley not a death-trap . Meet the Li-su . Buddhistic beliefs . Late Mr. G. Litton as a traveler . Resemblance in religion to Kachins . Ghost of ancestral spirits . Li-su graves . Description of the people . Racial differences . John the Baptist's hardship . The cross-bow and author's previous experience . Plans for subsequent travel fall through . Mission work among the Li-su . On my return journey into Yün-nan, I stopped
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CHAPTER XXV.
CHAPTER XXV.
Last stages of long journey . Characteristics of the country . Sham and Kachins . Author's dream of civilization . British pride . End of paved roads . Mountains cease . A confession of foiled plans . Nantien as a questionable fort . About the Shans . Village squabble, and how it ended . Absence of disagreement in Shan language . Charming people, but lazy . Experience with Shan servant . At Chiu-Ch'eng . New Year festivities . After-dinner diversions . Author as a medico . Ingratitude of the Chi
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CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Two days from Burma . Tropical wildness induces ennui . The River Taping . At Hsiao Singai . Possibility of West China as a holiday resort from Burma . Fascination of the country . Manyüen reached with difficulty . The Kachins . Good work of the American Baptist Mission . Mr. Roberts . Arrival at borderland of Burma . Last dealings with Chinese officials . British territory . Thoughts on the trend of progress in China . Beautiful Burma . End of long journey. I was now two days' march from the Br
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