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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| A 30-year old Tangut from the village of Katani on horseback. |
Citation Information
RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
A 3o-year old Tangut from the village of Katani on
horseback.
place is called Shy myng guan and really looks like a gate through which the river flows between two almost perpendicular granite mountains. High up on a spur of the mountain on the left stands a Chinese miao, enclosed since the Dungan revolt by a crenellated clay wall. North of the »gate» the valley becomes much wider. In the village of Jekuchow about
2 miles beyond we crossed the river by a bridge.
The arbah road to Kung-Chang-fu goes on along the left bank, but the road we followed on the right bank was no longer passable for arbahs. Soon after we had crossed the river, it joined the Chaku ho that flows from the W in a broad bed of gravel framed by mountains. They flow on to the E under the joint name of Chang-hsien ho, forming numerous branches in a bed of gravel about 200 fathoms in width. The valley now widens considerably and is at times over I I /2 miles broad. The river displays a decided preference for the right bank and at first winds at the foot of its mountains until the latter are replaced by a terrace-like, partly tilled spur. On the opposite side there arc large tilled fields with thinly scattered trees and many villages. On our side of the river, too, the road led through some villages of little importance until, towards the end of the day's journey, we reached the village of Yuanting of 30o houses. The mountains on the right, which had retreated slightly from the river for a few miles, had come nearer again and enclosed Yuanting in a large semicircle, the crown of which was decorated with a couple of temples and an old wall, behind which the inhabitants of the village sought shelter during the last revolt. We crossed 4. or 5 arms of the river in a NE direction.
A mile or two beyond Yuanting we reached the town of Chang-hsien. Surrounded by its unpretentious wall of pounded clay, its miserable huts give it the appearance of a village rather than a town. Nevertheless, it is the principal place of a »hsien» district of the same name.
The distance covered during the day was 19-20 miles. With the exception of a few
) 587 (
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