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
C. G. MANNERHEIM
there were remains of walls and other ruins. The stone pavement of the road came to an end a couple of li further on. Here lay the village of Tsuifan tin of 15o houses on a small river of the same name. The road ran in the same ESE direction as yesterday. The ground is supposed to dip, but it is not perceptible. Hungshui, a village of 18o houses, lay 30 li from the town, a river of the same name flowing through it. 12 li beyond we came to
Tu ehr ku with 4 houses.
We reached the town of Chi san hsien after covering 50 li and rode through the little place without stopping. It looked far from attractive in the grey, dirty weather. The name of the town occurs in Chinese history about 3,000 years ago under the Chow dynasty. The town is said to contain a tree that dates back to the time of Abraham. A Hsien is resident there and there is a Protestant mission station in charge of the missionary at Feng-siang-fu.
5 li from the town we passed Uli miao with 15 houses and 5 li further on a little river, flowing southward in a deep cleft, Yengwa ho and Ku. A village of the same name of 30-40 houses lay on either side of the valley. The village of Lungiku of 12-15 houses lies 20 li from the town. A short distance from it the road to Tsian Chow branches off from the arbah highway from Feng-siang-fu to Hing-an-fu. We took the former in an ENE direction. The mountains we had recently left rose up on the left. The more distant ridges were covered with snow. The rain in the night had probably produced snow in the mountains. On the right and straight in front of us there was an apparently level plain. It was cultivated everywhere and large groups of leaf-trees indicated the positions of the thickly scattered big villages. 5 li from the spot, where the road divided, we passed the village of Pei yang i with 70o houses, Io li beyond the village of Sungtsung with w and in another io li Ti hua ching with 600.
The rain had stopped, but it was still dull and piercingly cold. The local people along this part of the road were extraordinarily inquisitive and kept on running long distances to get a close view of us. At Ti hua ching, where I had intended to spend the night, we were literally besieged by about 200 Chinese. This made me lose patience and decide to ride the remaining 15 li to the village of Famyng sy or Me-jan hsien, as it is also called. We met many caravans of mules laden with white cotton cloth. The cattle on this side of Lungchow were much larger than in Southern Kan Su. From Feng-siang-fu they had become fine; the oxen were large, red-haired and in good condition and the mules were also considerably larger. We saw numerous stones with inscriptions during the journey and old peilu built of stone. Some were rather beautiful.
After travelling 115 li in all we reached Famyng sy, a village of wo houses. There is a temple with a high tower of the T'ang dynasty in the village. Wheat, oats, peas and mustard are grown here Average crop 7-8 fold. All tillage is dependent on rainwater. We were still on the same plateau as Feng-siang-fu. Snow falls from the 11th to the beginning of the 2nd month, but melts in a day or two. There is a good deal of rain between the znd and loth months. Strong east winds in spring. There have been no burans in recent years.
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