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
goes over the latter place from Lianchow to Lanchow. Sung i shen which is on this road (between Tatsing and Lanchow) is also connected by a road with Kulang, but to the west of Kulang there is aid to be no road leading south over the mountains.
The soldiers left during the night. I was awakened at 12.30 by constant whistling January 241h.
and the sound of voices. This was the signal for departure which proceeded very quietly Lung kowpu
without any shouting or yelling. I started soon after 7 a.m. It was cloudy and chilly, village.
and the little town looked still more uninviting in the grey of dawn. It lies at the E foot of a small, grassy mountain projecting northward. Two suburbs have grown up close to its two gates, their combined size being equal to that of the town. It has no significance in the way of defence. The whole town is open to fire from the hills in the W. The gorge, at the mouth of which it lies, can be avoided on the W by a road connecting Lianchow with Ngannien ing (further south) and in the E by the road from Lianchow to Tatsing
and Lanchow.
Just S of Kulang we came to the steep slope on the left bank of the river Kulang hsien ho. The river, covered with ice, wound through a valley, about 200 fathoms wide, between fairly steep, grassy mountains. Its width was about 5 fathoms. The road stuck to the left bank of the river, either crossing a small open space or creeping a short way up the slope of the mountain. In the latter places galleries, as wide as the wheels of an arbah, have been built and the road is quite passable, though the wheels at times run along bare rock and some of the ascents, and especially descents, are very steep and impose a severe strain on the animals. The slopes of the bank often descend perpendicularly from a considerable height. They are so steep and the valley is so narrow that practically no use is made of the stony ground. A few miserable dwellings and a heap of ruins alone are visible along the road. The remains of the Great Wall run along the opposite bank, often at intervals of several miles. There is grass on the mountains the whole way. It is quite rare to see a bare, grey patch of rock.
A mile or two from Kulang we passed two houses called Tingdia veitzu, and 4-5 miles further on some houses called Tchalutuntzu. Here I found a good many pheasants and shot 4. About 2/3 of a mile beyond we came to Kuan ti miao, all these villages containing two or three houses. Here the road divided, one branch going over Huang Yang chuan to Sungi shan on the Lianchow-Lanchow road. The gorge grew wider here and separated into two valleys, divided from each other by a wide triangle with sloping, grassy mountains. The river Kulang hsien ho comes from the SE and the river Lung kow ho from the S or SSW. We followed the latter, which flowed through a valley 2/3 of a mile broad in some places. The mountains were lower here and most of the slopes less steep. About 4 1/2--5 miles from Ehr-shih-li-pu lie the ruins of a large village, Heisungi, in which a couple of houses were inhabited. 45 li from Kulang we reached the village of Lung kowpu, the hovels in which reminded me of the inns in my travels in Kouwai. I made the distance for the day 15-16 miles. It is difficult to do more with loads on the arbahs in view of the stony, rough and very hilly road.
During the whole of our journey we kept meeting young soldiers. The majority walked
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