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BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A QUIET JOURNEY ACROSS CHINA TO BURMA
BEING THE NARRATIVE OF A QUIET JOURNEY ACROSS CHINA TO BURMA
M.D. Edin., F.R.G.S. THIRD EDITION LONDON: HORACE COX WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM'S BUILDINGS E.C. MDCCCCII TO F.R.C.S.E., F.R.S.E., ETC., PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, WHO GAVE ME BACK THE POWER OF LOCOMOTION. I GRATEFULLY INSCRIBE THIS VOLUME....
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory—Mainly about Missionaries and the City of Hankow. In the first week of February, 1894, I returned to Shanghai from Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River as far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross quietly over Western China, the Chinese Shan States, and Kachin Hills to the frontier of Burma. The ensuing narrative will tell how easily and pleasantly this journey, which a few years ago would have been regarded as a formidable undertaking, can now be d
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
From Ichang To Wanhsien, with some account of Chinese Women and the Rapids of the Yangtse Kiang. The agreement was brought me in the morning; all the afternoon I was busy, and at 8 p.m. I embarked from the Customs pontoon. The boat was a wupan (five boards), 28 feet long and drawing 8 inches. Its sail was like the wing of a butterfly, with transverse ribs of light bamboo; its stern was shaped "like a swallow's wings at rest." An improvised covering of mats amidships was my crib; and with spare m
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
The City of Wanhsien, and the Journey from Wanhsien to Chungking. At daylight, on March 1st, we were abreast of the many storied pagoda, whose lofty position, commanding the approach to the city, brings good fortune to the city of Wanhsien. A beautiful country is this—the chocolate soil richly tilled, the sides of the hills dotted with farmhouses in groves of bamboo and cedar, with every variety of green in the fields, shot through with blazing patches of the yellow rape-seed. The current was sw
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
The City of Chungking—The Chinese Customs—The Famous Monsieur Haas, and a few words on the Opium Fallacy. After passing through the gorge known as Tung-lo-hsia ten miles from Chungking, the laoban tried to attract my attention, calling me from my crib and pointing with his chin up the river repeating "Haikwan one piecee," which I interpreted to mean that there was an outpost of the customs here in charge of one white man; and this proved to be the case. The customs kuatze or houseboat was moored
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The Journey from Chungking to Suifu—Chinese Inns. I left the boat at Chungking and started on my land journey, going west 230 miles to Suifu. I had with me two coolies to carry my things, the one who received the higher pay having also to bring me my food, make my bed, and pay away my copper cash. They could not speak a single word of English. They were to be paid for the journey one 4 s. 10 d. and the other 5 s. 7 d. They were to be entitled to no perquisites, were to find themselves on the way
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
The City of Suifu—The China Inland Mission, with some general remarks about Missionaries in China. At Suifu I rested a day in order to engage new coolies to go with me to Chaotong in Yunnan Province, distant 290 miles. Neither of my two Chungking men would re-engage to go further. Yet in Chungking Laokwang the cook had declared that he was prepared to go with me all the way to Talifu. But now he feared the loneliness of the road to Chaotong. The way, he said, was mountainous and little trodden,
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Suifu to Chaotong, with some remarks on the Province of Yunnan—Chinese Porters, Postal Arrangements, and Banks. I engaged three new men in Suifu, who undertook to take me to Chaotong, 290 miles, in thirteen days, special inducement being held out to them in the shape of a reward of one shilling each to do the journey in eleven days. Their pay was to be seven shillings and threepence each, apart from the bonus, and of course they had to find themselves. They brought me from the coolie-hong, where
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
The City of Chaotong, with some remarks on its Poverty, Infanticide, Selling Female Children into Slavery, Tortures, and the Chinese Insensibility to Pain. By the following day we had crossed the mountains, and were walking along the level upland that leads to the plain of Chaotong. And on Sunday, April 1st, we reached the city. Cedars, held sacred, with shrines in the shelter of their branches, dot the plain; peach-trees and pear-trees were now in full bloom; the harvest was ripening in the fie
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Mainly about Chinese Doctors. Chaotong is an important centre for the distribution of medicines to Szechuen and other parts of the empire. An extraordinary variety of drugs and medicaments is collected in the city. No pharmacop[oe]ia is more comprehensive than the Chinese. No English physician can surpass the Chinese in the easy confidence with which he will diagnose symptoms that he does not understand. The Chinese physician who witnesses the unfortunate effect of placing a drug of which he kno
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
The Journey from Chaotong to Tongchuan. In Chaotong I engaged three new men to go with me to Tongchuan, a distance of 110 miles, and I rewarded liberally the three excellent fellows who had accompanied me from Suifu. My new men were all active Chinamen. The headman Laohwan was most anxious to come with me. Recognising that he possessed characteristics which his posterity would rejoice to have transmitted to them, he had lately taken to himself a wife and now, a fortnight later, he sought rest. H
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
The City of Tongchuan, with some remarks upon Infanticide. When I entered Tongchuan the town was in commotion; kettledrums and tomtoms were beating, and crackers and guns firing; the din and clatter was continuous and deafening. An eclipse of the sun was commencing—it was the 6th of April—"the sun was being swallowed by the Dog of Heaven," and the noise was to compel the monster to disgorge its prey. Five months ago the Prefect of the city had been advised of the impending disaster, and it was k
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Tongchuan to Yunnan City. From Tongchuan to Yunnan city, the provincial seat of Government and official residence of the Viceroy, whither I was now bound, is a distance of two hundred miles. My two carriers from Chaotong had been engaged to go with me only as far as Tongchuan, but they now re-engaged to go with Laohwan, my third man, as far as the capital. The conditions were that they were to receive 6 s. 9 d. each (2.25 taels), one tael (3 s. ) to be paid in advance and the balance on arrival,
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
At Yunnan City. Yunnan City is one of the great cities of China, not so much in size as in importance. It is within easy access at all seasons of the year of the French colony of Tonquin, whereas the trade route from here to British Burma is long, arduous, and mountainous, and in its Western portions is closed to traffic during the rains. From Yunnan City to Mungtze on the borders of Tonquin, where there is a branch of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China, is a journey of eight days over an ea
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Gold, Banks, and Telegraphs in Yunnan. Yunnan City is the great gold emporium of China, for most of the gold found in China comes from the province of which it is the capital. When a rich Chinaman returns from Yunnan to another province, or is summoned on a visit to the Emperor at Peking, he carries his money in gold not silver. Gold leaf sent from Yunnan gilds the gods of Thibet and the temples and pagodas of Indo-China. No caravan returns to Burma from Western China whose spare silver has not
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
The French Mission and the Arsenal in Yunnan City. The most prominent structure within the city walls is the Heavenly Lord Hall ( Tien-chu-tang ), the pile of buildings which form the headquarters of the French Mission in the province of Yunnan. It was a master-stroke to secure possession of so important a site. The palace is on a higher level even than the yamen of the Viceroy, and must intercept much of the good fortune that would otherwise flow into the city. The façade of the central hall ha
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Journey from Yunnan City to Talifu. I sold the mule in Yunnan City, and bought instead a little white pony at a cost, including saddle, bridle, and bells, of £ 3 6 s. In doing this I reversed the exchange that would have been made by a Chinaman. A mule is a more aristocratic animal than a pony; it thrives better on a journey, and is more sure-footed. If a pony, the Chinese tell you, lets slip one foot, the other three follow; whereas a mule, if three feet slip from under him, will hold on wi
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
The City of Tali—Prisons—Poisoning—Plagues and Missions. Three hours later we were in Tali. A broad paved road, smooth from the passage of countless feet, leads to the city. Rocky creeks drain the mountain range into the lake; they are spanned by numerous bridges of dressed stone, many of the slabs of which are well cut granite blocks eighteen feet in length. At a stall by the roadside excellent ices were for sale, genuine ices, made of concave tablets of pressed snow sweetened with treacle, cos
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Journey from Tali, with some Remarks on the Character of the Cantonese, Chinese Emigrants, Cretins, and Wife-beating in China. The three men who had come with me the six hundred and seventeen miles from Chaotong left me at Tali to return all that long way home on foot with their well-earned savings. I was sorry to say good-bye to them; but they had come many miles further than they intended, and their friends, they said, would be anxious: besides Laohwan, you remember, was newly married. I e
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
The Mekong and Salween Rivers—How to Travel in China. To-day, May 7th, we crossed the River Mekong, even at this distance from Siam a broad and swift stream. The river flows into the light from a dark and gloomy gorge, takes a sharp bend, and rolls on between the mountains. Where it issues from the gorge a suspension bridge has been stretched across the stream. A wonderful pathway zigzags down the face of the mountain to the river, in an almost vertical incline of 2000ft. At the riverside an emb
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
The City of Tengyueh—The celebrated Wuntho Sawbwa—Shan Soldiers. I was given a comfortable room in the telegraph offices, but I had little privacy. My room was thronged during all the time of my visit. The first evening I held an informal and involuntary reception, which was attended by all the officials of the town, with the dignified exception of the Brigadier-General. The three members of the Chinese Boundary Commission, which had recently arranged with the British Commission the preliminarie
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Shan Town of Santa, and Manyuen, the Scene of Consul Margary's Murder. It was market day in Santa, and the accustomed crowd gathered round me as I stood in the open square in front of the Sawbwa's yamen. I was hot and hungry, for it was still early in the afternoon, and the attentions of the people were oppressive. Presently two men pushed their way through the spectators, and politely motioning to me to follow them, they led me to a neighbouring temple, to the upper storey, where the side p
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CHAPTER XXII.
CHAPTER XXII.
China as a Fighting Power—The Kachins—And the Last Stage into Bhamo. We now left the low land and the open country, the pastures and meadows, and climbed up the jungle-clad spurs which form the triangular dividing range that separates the broad and open valley of the Taiping, where Manyuen is situated, from the confined and tropical valley of the Hongmuho, which lies at the foot of the English frontier fort of Nampoung, the present boundary of Burma. Two miles below Nampoung the two rivers join,
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CHAPTER XXIII.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Bhamo, Mandalay, Rangoon, and Calcutta. The finest residence in Bhamo is, of course, the American mission. America nobly supports her self-sacrificing and devoted sons who go forth to arrest the "awful ruin of souls" among the innumerable millions of Asia, who are "perishing without hope, having sinned without law." The missionary in charge told me that he labours with a "humble heart to bring a knowledge of the Saving Truth to the perishing heathen among the Kachins." His appointment is one whi
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