Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 129 (Color Image)

0129	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. v.] KALGAN.

IOI

all that depended on this, my single servant

and companion, I cannot feel too grateful for

the fidelity he showed in accompanying me.

For the first two weeks, to the edge of the

desert, the baggage was carried in carts, while

I rode. The day after leaving Peking we

passed through the inner branch of the Great

Wall at the Nankow gate, and a couple of

days later reached Kalgan, where we found

some very good shops, and I even bought a

watch. This place does an immense trade

with the Mongols, and with the caravans

which start from there northwards across the

desert to Siberia. But even here we could

learn nothing about the route which I wished

to follow across the desert, starting from

Kwei-hwa-cheng, some marches further west

of Kalgan. How devoid the Chinese are

of anything like an instinct for geography !

Anything beyond a man's own town or the

road he works on has no interest for him,

and he knows nothing of it. Caravans start

regularly from Kwei - hwa - cheng across the

desert to Hami ; Kwei-hwa-cheng is only a

week's journey from Kalgan, and Kalgan is

a great trading centre ; and yet nowhere in

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books