Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 38 (Color Image)

0038	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

16 PEKING TO LHASA

streets were being made in the city. And Mr.

Baldwin, the Inspector of Salt, had constructed

a steam roller with four corn-grinding millstones.

Mr. Baldwin had also started a club on European

lines. He was the only European ; but there

were more than a hundred Chinese members. A

tennis court had been made ; dinner-parties could

be given ; there were bedrooms for strangers ;

and newspapers to date were taken. Yungcheng

also possessed a model prison.

Crossing another of the fertile plains with peach

trees now in blossom, Pereira reached the range

which forms the northern bank of the Huang Ho

(the Yellow River). This range he crossed at a

height of 3650 feet, and then next day dropped

some 1500 feet to the Yellow River, where

he encountered a snowstorm which made the

roads very heavy and slippery. The river had

to be crossed by a ferry. There were six or

seven boats, and one of the larger took his caravan

of eight mules and three carts, the mules being

taken out and the. carts man-handled up planks

on to the boat. The mules, as is their wont,

proved refractory and began kicking about. But

luckily none went overboard.

The Province of Ronan lay on the other side

of the river. The bank rose several feet above

the river in a great plateau of loess —a light friable

soil which is very dusty in dry weather and cakes

into heavy slippery mud in wet weather. After

the snow and rain Pereira found the road to

Kwanyintang one of the worst he had seen in

China. The wretched mules with difficulty

dragged the cart through the mud. They often

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