Leaving Shanghai College three weeks before commencement, Professor George B. Cressey will start on a three months' tour to the unknown regions of the Ordos and Alashan deserts beyond the Great Wall from Kansu in Western Inner Mongolia. The journey to his base, the city of Ninghsia, Kansu, will occupy three weeks, and will be by boat to Hankow, thence by rail via Chengchow to Shanchow, Honan; from there by motor car to Sianfu and to Pingliang, Kansu; and then by pack mules to Ninghsia.
The aren which it is proposed to study lies in western Inner Monggolia, north of the Great Wall from Kansu. Except for irrigated strips along the Yellow River all of this region is a desert. In the centre of the area lies the great Alashan Range of mountains, which rise to over 10,000 ft, and divide the desert Into two distinct regions; the Alashan desert on the weet and the Andes on the east. The Ordos in-eludes the district within the great northward bend of the Yellow River outside the Great Wall.
Although an ancient Mongolian trade route crosses this district, it has seldom been followed by We erners. Except for a fow trails most of the Ordos and Alashan is quite unknown, both geographically and geologically. Marco Polo crossed this aren on his journey to China, and over much of the summer Dr. Cressey's expedition will be following in his footsteps.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.