Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 80 (Color Image)

0080	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

50 PEKING TO LHASA

The travelling was rough for the next few days,

but from the hills there were beautiful pano-

ramas for miles round over low-lying well-wooded

country.

Tzeliutsing was reached on June 30. It is an

unofficial town of 200,000 inhabitants and is

situated on the Wei-yiian River, on which there

are hundreds of salt locks. The country round

consists of treeless hills, and everywhere the heap-

steads of the salt-mines stand out like miniature

Eiffel Towers. These heapsteads consist of four

or more legs, each leg being made up of poles

lashed and clamped together. The legs are then

tied together near the top. The salt-mines were

discovered about the beginning of the Han

dynasty, some 200 B.C. The salt wells belong

to the salt merchants, and they pay duty to the

Government on every picul (130 lb.) of salt sent

out. Salt is, with the Customs, the chief source

of revenue to the Government. In Szechwan,

which had declared its independence of the

Central Government, the revenue had been taken

by the local government of Chunking on the

Yangtse. There are 4500 salt wells in Tzeliutsing,

of which about 60 per cent are working.

Pereira went over one of the big salt works.

The shafts were sunk to a depth of over 3000 feet

and it was a chance whether anything would

be found. The sinking of a shaft takes three

years' hard work. A hole about 6 inches in

diameter is bored down, the head of the well

being encased in sandstone for a depth of a few

feet. If successful, salt brine or gas is found at

the bottom. The gas is used for boiling the salt.

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