国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 | |
北京からラサへ : vol.1 |
THE START FROM PEKING 11
The plains of Chihli were soon after left behind,
and Pereira entered the more hilly Province of
Shansi. Here a railway ascends some bare, tree-
less hills to a height of 4400 feet and then gradu-
ally descends to the Taiyuan plain 2625 feet above
sea-level. In the city of Taiyuan he found many
improvements. Good streets had been laid out.
A university and several foreign-looking school
buildings had been erected. Electric light had
been installed. There were three motors, two
motor cycles, a motor lorry and eight hundred
rickshaws all licensed and with European numbers.
The European community now numbered between
fifty and sixty.
Pereira stayed with Mr. Ross, the Postal
Commissioner, and records that, ably run by
foreigners, the Chinese Post Office is year by year
improving. New offices are constantly being
opened and old ones improved. Notwithstanding
the bad roads and brigands he invariably received
his mail in all sorts of places throughout the
Empire punctually and without loss.
Shansi has the reputation of being the home of
Chinese bankers, but in general it is one of the
poorest Provinces. Twenty years previously it
was perhaps the most opium-soaked Province in
China. With the suppression of opium it im-
proved for a while. But now again, owing to the
connivance of Chinese officials, morphia and
morphine are being smuggled in, and people are
taking to bad habits again. The people make
poor soldiers and are a quiet race. The governor
(Yen-shih-shah) ten years before was a sergeant.
He had risen more by luck than through any real
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