Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 234 (Color Image)

0234	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

176 PEKING TO LHASA

to Chinese Turkestan, where a tract of country is

still known as Jungaria. Pereira came across a

fragment of the race when shooting in the Tian

Shan.

Giamda was reached on October 6 at 18f miles.

The road leads down the same valley, though the

name of the river changes to Niem Chu and then to Jya Chu. The valley is mostly from 200 to 400 yards wide, with hills from 1500 to 2000 feet

high rising above it. The path is fairly good

though often stony and occasionally rocky. Four

or five small villages were passed. At 18 miles

the Jya Chu is crossed by a precarious temporary

bridge, the old bridge having been washed away

by the summer floods and a new one not having

been built, as bridges in Tibet are built in winter. Giamda, 11,750 feet, has forty families, of

whom seventeen are Chinese. It lies between

the Jya Chu and the Siarp Chu, which, uniting

below the village, form the Güng-bu Zong Chu.

This name is derived from the district of Güng-bu,

which extends from Giamda to I-Tsé-la-gong on

the Tsang Po. There is a small official here who

with the head-man sent Pereira the usual present

of eggs most of them bad.

This was a glorious sunny day and the most

enjoyable he had had ; and the scenery was

lovely. The evergreen mingled with autumn-

tinted trees and bushes ; and the clear stream

was often in rapids and formed small islands which

were covered with trees, prominent among which

were small fluffy dwarf cedars. There were, too,

quantities of blue flowers. Inner Tibet in Sep-

tember and October is in parts a beautiful country.

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