Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 292 (Color Image)

0292	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

208 PEKING TO LHASA

town on the 27th. This he found to be a fine city of 90,000 inhabitants and the chief mercantile

town of Tonquin. The French Resident, Monsieur

Krautheimer, very kindly sent on board an in-

vitation to Pereira to come and stay with him,

and in the evening took him for a drive round

the city. The well laid out streets and fine build-

ings were a revelation to him. The city is built

on marshy ground reclaimed, and is a monument

of French capacity and infinite patience and

ingenuity. There were nice French houses and

small gardens, and a fine war memorial, and

small, very well kept Botanical Gardens, with a

few animals. Pereira had not expected to find

such a flourishing place, and in many respects it

impressed him favourably, even in comparison

with Hong-Kong. The hotels and cafés were more

attractive, though the buildings in Hong-Kong

were larger and the natural surroundings were

more beautiful.

Hanoi he reached on June 29 and called at once

on Monsieur Monjuillot, the Résident Supérieur

of Tonquin. And here again Pereira was struck

with the genius of the French in building a city.

He thought it the best laid out city in the East,

and better than Saigon. Though it has not the

huge buildings of Shanghai it has fine broad

boulevards. The French, he thought, were better

than we are in laying out a city.

To Yunnan he proceeded by night train from

Hanoi. Lao Kay was reached the next morning,

and here the railway crosses the Nam Ti in the

Yunnan province. The railway ascends the moun-

tains by a series of loops and many tunnels and

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