Your correspondent returned only a few days ago from o trip to Chiningchou, 400 to the south-west, and was much impressed with the beauty of the country at this most beautiful season of the year. The waving fields of heading wheat, the fresh leaves of the trees, nearly all of which were in full Jeaf, together with the noble mountains which are a feature of this road, Taishan lying in full view to the north,' all combined to make it a charming scene. I could not help wishing more people would take advantage of the now completed railway to take a run up through Shantung and see for themselves what a beautiful province we have up here. But if they are to have the benefit of the lovely wheat fields they will have to come very soon, for within about two weeks the harvest will be in full blast, and after that the fields look quite bare for some weeks until the millet and beans again cover the ground with verdure. In July and August the country will again be looking its prettiest during the summer rains. The trip from Tsingtau to Chinanfu is well worth all it costs to one who has never been through the province, for it is a rare treat in the way of pastoral beauty, and up here at this end of the line the hills add very greatly to the interest of the trip. Even the Chinese villages look picturesque, embowered as they are in trees, but tourists should beware of spoiling their impressions by going into the towns themselves, for a nearer acquaintance dispels all illusions of beauty about these dirty collections of hovels, compost heaps, dogs and pigs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.