Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 32 (Color Image)

0032	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

10 PEKING TO LHASA

Pereira was still annoyed at the vexatious in-

quisitiveness of Chinese crowds. At meals or a

halt in a village the crowds would close in to watch

him eating and pester him with inquiries. On

arriving at an inn the traveller alights in a filthy

courtyard which has never been swept out. He

then proceeds to his chamber, on the north side of

which is the kang or raised platform, beneath

which runs a flue which is heated by burning long

millet stalks. Lying on the kang the traveller is

roasted when the millet stalks are burning and

frozen when the fire dies out. The walls are of

mud, with the accumulated dirt of ages. The

wooden door never fits the doorway, so admits

plenty of fresh air. The windows are of paper.

Such inns Pereira found a poor refuge after a

long day's journey. In the winter time the

traveller is frozen, but free of insects. In summer

time the walls are the refuge of countless bugs,

who issue forth at night in legions to attack their

unfortunate victim. And if they cannot reach

him on his bed they climb on to the ceiling and drop

on him from above. If he sleeps on the kang

without a bed he becomes a victim to lice. And on

the cart, too, he must be careful not to get near the

wadded clothes of the carters for fear of these pests.

At Chengting Fu, which has a population of

about 90,000, he found a large French Lazarist

Mission with schools for 150 boys, orphanages

where boys are taught various trades, and a

convent with sixteen Sisters of Charity who

usually look after about a thousand orphans and

destitute women, but who during the famine had

to succour twice that number.

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