Despite iis modern appeariince.1' must confess that 1 was not at all favourably impressed by Chungking. From what Iwas told and myself experienced, the inhabitants appeared uncivil and decidedly antiforeign. During my walks through the streets T was repeatedly followed by mobs of children shouting abuse, 'This, T understand, is a notorious feature of Chungking life. Anyhow, during a trip in the interior, one gots used 10" juvenile outbursts of this kind, and I should have attached importance to it, had It not been that none of the' very numerous! police nor any adults made any effort fo check this nuisance; on the contrary, many of the larier from tea shops and upper windows actually applauded, clapping. their, hands.
The "student politician nuisance also is still all the rage in Chungking, a stage-which most other cities China have long since got through, Little boys and girls were standing on up-turned kerosene cases in the middle of the pavements lecturing fan awe-struck " audience on the! iniquities of the foreigner and all the usual rubbish. In an Interview 1 had with the mayor I was asked my, impressions of Chungking and am afraid that my comments did not give! much satisfeetion. But there the people of Chungking cannot ha Ht both ways, they cannot expect to. commend admiration as a modern community, when they are about 50 years behind the times in their ideas and conduct, og indeed is the whole of Szechuen, of which 1 shall have more to, soy later on, Climate Oppressive The climate, too, I found un-Pleasantly damp and oppressive, although, as a matter of fact, I had struck a patch of unusually fine weather, 'There is the well-known saying about Szechuen: that the dogs bark at the sun, because they sec seldom. But this year they' must have barked themselves hoarse By now, for Chungking which Is generally under a pall of mist all the winter and spring, had been enjoying brilliant sunshine and dry weather for months, Hence the famine in Szechuen, Altogether, Chungking did not strike me as a very desirable place of residence, and Tam not surprised that the bulk of ian. Fr the foreign community live on the hills on the opposite bank, crossing the Yangtze every day to go to their business in the city. "It was without any regret that I left Chungking, atler a two days stay, on my way the salt-wells to Teellutsing, The Chungking-Chengtu highway by which I had to travel is nothing] to boast about, considering that thas Doon in existence for nearly ten could years, Some. foreigners, it is true, assert having done the run of 280 miles easily in one day, but T found the surface so rough, that I ws tunable to do more than fifteen miles hour.
Tt certainly looked as if had not been repaired for ages This may be partly due to the fact that work has at last been started fon the railway between Chungking and Chengtu, (This, by the way, is providing employment for a certain umber of famine sufferers). I say "at last," because the railway was planned' and the capital subscribed for it over 25 years ago. It was, in fact, one of the starting causes' of the Revolution of 1011, the Szechuenese demanding that it should be concern and Something of a historical irony that the present ral way is being financed by a group of Chinese "banks in Shanghai with the help of French capital, and is not being built by the province after all. In the greater part of its course the tine wit follow the present motor road and, although it will not actually be' laid on it (as was the famous Shans! Railway, for instance), it will ross and recross it so often that the road will be practically use-Jess. T was told, however, that the railway is allotting the provincial Road Bureau a sum of money to enable them to construct a new road further cast, That possibly is the reason why the present highway is being neglected, Uninteresting Scenery Except for two low ranges, one not far from Chungking and the other about ten miles from Chengtu, the moter road runs through easy and gently undulating country. The scenery, for the most part, is very uninteresting. The road takes the rst range by a series of serpentine windings, passing over itself by bridges and one tunnel. It struck me at the time as somewhat remarkable, seeing that the range did not appear to present any real dificullies warranting such an elaborate piece of engineering. 1 was, therefore, not surprised to learn inter that,, from an engineering point of view, the windings were quite unnecessary, but that it had been so constructed "in order to avoid passing through the large family graveyard of a cettoin general, the soothsayers having declared that the road would be unsuccessful, if it touched that particu: lar piece' at property, Late in the afternoon we reached, Paimochen which is about half-way to Changtu.: Here we had to cross a river by ferry, the only ferry on the road; a long bridge for the railway was already in course of construction. Shorily afterwards we assed through the small town of Neichiang, or Lelchiang as the Szechuenese pronounce it, (For some reason or'other, the N at the beginning of a word is pronounced L, and as the L still remains 1, it is very confusing for the uninitiated), Here we had more than our ordinary ditculty in threading our way through the crowded streets, A large, excited and noisy crowd stared at us with unfriendly eyes and made way for the car only with the greatest
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.