Experiences on a Shantung Bus Route [Prone 4 Comesrosoent Almost immediately after. reading the account of stranded scouts on'
Shantung motor-rosd T had 10 take a itip on another of these routes, with one' companion, and. the ex: periences though not 0 bad were at {east productive of material Yor de scriptive writing.
We left Weihaiwei one morning by the arly bus, a. Ford of not very recent construction, end wondered by the floor space' was encumbered with large planks, a spade and a frattock, rather unusual items. lugenge for passengers to take with them inside. "But more of these anon.
For some twenty miles the road is good, "through quite pretty rural Scents with frees, abundant" grasses and crops, the common pines of the Christmas' tree type, and thick oat scrub, When a river or stream Yad {o be crossed a strong' slone bridge was there, or a neat two-arched one quite an English type.
'The villages were mostly of strongly built stone houses, and. in. some the "only strikingly' characteristic Chinese feature. was ie prominent Stones with round holes For mule 'After some twenty miles the roads became much poorer." Skirting. the Village of Yehhsikou the bus followed Wack across the sand of the wide Tivercbed, plunged through the river, water or no. Water, and wound Up Into the more hilly' country.
Suddenly something went wrong with he engine, anda halt of halt hour was called at a lonely spot Some of the Yorkshire moors, with hardly a sign of the rugged Fock masses which—the coastline would suggest es the normal style in Chinese hills, Then Came the Rain When the trouble was located and put right we started off again; all went well till soon after teh o'clock chen; after negotiating one of the sudden dips inthe road caused by small "streams or intersecting mule-tracks, the bus found a bad spot in the rising road and the two wheels fon one side sank in up to the axles For two hours all efforts to jack the bus out were vain and escape was only effected by the help of the bus from the other end, which towed ours out backwards, so that we could on again, There were no further mishaps Ull after passing Yetou, the town at which the buses stop' for their mid-day halt. On account of our previous delays and of the threatening rain ahead, only a short halt was made and we pushed on soon after two in the afternoon, Rain soon came on, but the worst troubles were from the results of what had previously fallen. Several rivers had to be dashed through, and {in many places the road, so-called, was under water either from ite own Tow situation or from the inflow from a neighbouring duck pond. At three o'clock the car plunged down an extremely bumpy bit of road, scaring kingfisher who was enjoy: ing the watery nature of the place, and tamed into a village called Siaclou.
The main street of this was trying to be like a cheap imitation of Venice: the bus took this as if it were 'a road and not a river, but when it came to the bus station it pulled out on to an adjoining piece of dry land and came toa stop. The rain was of falling heavily nor did it continue long, but the great question was whether the waters would run away well enough to allow further regress. Advance parties were sent Out to the real river half a mile ahead, of which the street-river was but a'humble tributary, to see what conditions were like. "'At last they returned and said that a venture might be made, By this time there were several pieces of street re-appearing from the receding waters, The River Negotiated When the river was reached, preparations were made for driving through it without sousing the engine. Road-menders waded slowly across to show the depths, and we got through quite successfully, though we stuck at the climb on {9 the other bank, and the passengers had to get Cut io ease the weight, Some dis-{ance further on, in a low part where. the road flanks 'a river and skirts 3 pretty wooded hill, the bus again fell Yeti to hidden pitfalls, Here the mud was thick. and it took two hours' work with the help of several roadman and a good deal of Kaoliang to sop the mud before the bus was on a sound footing again. In these situations the boards and spades were proved to be essential parts. of the equipment for the Journey, as much so as the Jack. For halt a mile the passengers walked til we came to aspotlwhere the road was trustworthy enough to embark on its ordinary course again. But by this time sunset was approaching and at seven o'clock, with rain again falling dismally, the bus gave up the struggle after reaching the last station before its destination. "Only ten miles, but night was falling as well as rain, and the roads were more than could:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.