IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
If 4 adults are reckoned per house, the Chinese rural population is about 5,000. Town population 1,50o. The taxes levied in the district are said to amount to 2,47o tan.
After a day's rest after the journey of II days through the desert, we started for Tun- November lrti huang this morning. I really think Ansi is one of those places, in which nobody stays Kua-chou-ku a moment longer than he is forced to. The town itself is bare, but many trees grow on station.
the cultivated land that encloses it in a wide semicircle. In the summer these surroundings must be buried in verdure which cannot fail to delight the eye of the traveller since, what-
ever direction he comes from, he must have journeyed for several days across the desert.
The road goes SW over low-lying ground with very saliferous soil. In some places the water in several ariqs had overflowed and formed slightly boggy places. The houses are
numerous, but small, surrounded by many trees that form small groves here and there, mostly W of the town. About 13/4 miles from the town the limit of the cultivated strip running almost due W from the town is reached. 2/3 of a mile due S of the town tillage ceases. This constitutes the northernmost of three parallel. cultivated areas, divided by barren tongues of desert, 2 —4 miles wide, running in a W—E direction.
We cut obliquely across the strip of desert. The ground consisted at first of sandy clay which soon gave way to pure, fine sand, which was mixed with clay and gravel further on.
About a mile and a half from the edge of the desert we came across the ruins of a tuntai
tower next to the road. After about 3 miles more we came to the next cultivated area and at the beginning of it to the ruins of a large abandoned fort with a gateway to the N. In size
and construction the wall was reminiscent of Chinese town walls, but unlike them it had
only one gateway. Close to the north wall the ruins of two fairly large buildings were visible, one inside and the other opposite outside the wall. The inner building contained
remains of walls that divided it into rooms. It all looked not more than ioo to 200 years
old. The Chinese say that there was a Sart town there. Just beyond the ruin the village of Sankung begins, S of which lie the ruins of Kua-chou-cheng, destroyed during the last
revolt, according to the Chinese. Their size is i /2 x I /3 of a mile and there are 2 gates to
the E and W. Inside the wall only the remains of a miao are visible, everything else being levelled to the ground. The village of Tugung (Tiugung?) surrounds the ruins and imme-
diately to the W of it there is a small piece of ground enclosed by a high, well preserved,
crenellated wall with a Chinese inscription over the gateway. The place is inhabited and is called P'usa (town or village?). SSW of this we entered the region of the village of
Shandjugung and immediately after came to Kua-chou with Ioo houses. At a distance of a mile or a mile and a half we saw on the right and left of the road, at about the I ith mile, small impanjes which are said to be deserted. The village of Pa-kung begins about this place. On its boundary we passed a miao, after which for another couple of miles the road passed between ruins of houses, probably destroyed during the Dungan revolt.
When the ruins came to an end, we chose one of the two tracks, both leading SW, that seemed to be more used for traffic. It wound with many turnings across uneven, porous and very saliferous ground with a little vegetation in the shape of prickly, dry, low grass-like plants. The direction became more and more W, and as it showed a distinct
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