IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| History of the Expedition in Asia, 1927-1935 : vol.3 |
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Citation Information
who at the outset of our car-journey in October 1933 had with all justification regarded it as the most neck-breaking adventure one could well tackle, to drive to Sinkiang just while civil war was raging.
The following morning YEW and I were fetched to the Marshal's headquarters in the premises of the Central Bank. I was first led up to Madame CHIANG'S reception-room, and had a long conversation with this clever and energetic lady before Marshal CHIANG KAI-SHEK himself entered and bade me welcome. With WONG WEN-HAO'S Atlas of China before us we spoke for an hour about the importance of roads to China's westernmost province. CHIANG KAI-sHEK is deeply and genuinely interested in this question, and he agreed with my views, already mentioned in the foregoing. I finally suggested that he should have a look at the road-map from the expedition that YEW, who was waiting in the reception-room below, had brought with him. YEW was then called upon to give an account of our work in Chinese. During my conversation with the Marshal his charming wife had acted as interpreter.
After a hearty farewell we set off on our return-flight to Nanking. It was now blowing quite hard from the east, and innumerable junks hoisted their brown or reddish yellow sails to let the wind take them upstream against the current. Shortly after the start Captain SELLER handed me a chit on which he had written: »I will fly within sight of the river all the way from here to Nanking. » Presumably he considered this the safest course for a hydroplane in such a hard wind. In this way I got a still clearer picture of the formation of the river and its bed than on the preceding day.
On the way to Hankow we had flown at an altitude of i,000 m and at a speed of 200 km an hour. On the return-flight our maximum altitude was q.00 m and the average speed 188 km an hour.
FINAI, SETTLEMENT OF THE MOTOR-CAR EXPEDITION
Owing to all the difficulties and periods of imprisonment we had had to endure in Sinkiang and in consequence of the explorations between Tun-huang and Lop-nor, the expedition had incurred expenses amounting to 40,000 dollars more than had been calculated. This sum was paid out by Vice-Minister of Railways TSENG without the slightest demur.
As soon as we had everything that had to be done in Nanking behind us, we left, on February 25th, for Shanghai. Here, amongst other things, I delivered lectures and with Dr WALTER and Mr Li of the Eurasia Co. settled our economic differences. As I have already mentioned, these gentlemen had with the greatest generosity helped us with petrol in Anhsi and other towns in Kansu.
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