The train was comfortable, but. very slow, taking ten hours to do 4380 miles. "The line ascends steadily, ut gradually, through broken, spar: sely populated country. ven in these nearer districts there is said to be much uncultivated land, " And labour scarce in these parts that not} only is there no unemployment, but the coolies for building the railway have all had to be brought. from. inside the Wall (ie. China. proper). There are no particular engineering] aimeulties in this section, other than some long bridges over wide riv beds.
During the whole day we only passed two places of any importance: Chaoyangehen and Yehpaishou, This latter isthe junction of the line to, Chihfeng, now under construction, Apparently it is intended to make Yehpaishou an important railway centre, for a whole new quarter of modern buildings has sprung ups there is an enormous accumulation of railway material of every kind: and six large platforms have been constructed exch with its own siding. Great hopes are being placed in the! future of Chinfeng as the real trade centre of the province, and if these prove true and the port at Hulutag ever constructed, then undoubtedly a line will be built to it direct from Yohpalshou through Chinhsi, cutting off the long detour by Chinchow. In. tone respect the railway has brought great change to the country. AUL the stations swarmed with Japanese of whom there are said to be 4,500 {in this southern part of the province, where formerly there were. scarcely any at all. "The majority of the rai way officials are
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.