Hanchung is a large and busy town en the Han River lying in the middle of a fertile plain which produces large quantities of cereals and. some cotton. It is also the centre of the wood-oil trade. Hitherto its full development has been retarded by poor communications, but when the proposed railway is built from Sian, it is likely to become a very important centre.
Despite the hospitality of my missionary hosts, Hanchung has bad associations for me owing to a chapter of errors which was to be the source of much trouble for the rest of the trip. Owing to a misunderstanding we failed to find a perfectly good inn that had been recommended, and pushed on until we got lost in the narrow streets of the city. While I was debating what to do, a man came up and said there were some foreigners in the place, So leaving the car I followed him to the C.LM. Compound where I was hospitably received. I then made a second mistake and instead of going back to fetch the car myself, I sent for it to be brought round by the mechanic. shacks and canvas booths. The place is booming. The inn I stayed at was the Hotel Ritz of the place, newly built and building still going on. It was patronized by the nouveau riches, namely the chauffeurs, fitters and other employees of the raihwa Along either side of the court was a two-storeyed building, the upper rooms, or rather cells, being for the accommodation of the guests, and the lower for their' amusements, 52 to say In this very noisy and crowded caravansary I spent the next 36 hours. It was still raining hard the riot morning and as it was imposble to go on, I sent the car to a local repair-shop to have the front spring changed. I spent the morning tramping about in the mud through the very uninteresting place ending up with a call on Mr, and Mrs. Frencham, the missionary couple who were captured by the Reds a few years ago at Ninghsiang near the Szechuen border.
About 3 pin. it had stopped raining The next morning, after we had left the Hanchung plain and got on to bad roads again. there was an ominous sound of the wings brushing against-the front wheels. and on getting out to look, I found that the front spring was broken. This had been done by the mechanic the night before who had "forgotten" to mention it, hoping doubtlessly that some bump en route would account for the damage. Recriminations were useless; at that stage I had long ago given up wasting my breath in useless comment.
In a Quandary The question to be decided was, whether to return to Hanchung and lose a day while the spare spring I had with me was put in, or to try and fix up the broken spring and push on. I decided for the latter, although at the time the chances of reaching our destination seemed very remote. Thinking that we had an easy day's run in front of us of only 160 miles I had started late, and now there was another two hour: further delay for repairs. I must however, give the devil his due: with the help of a spanner, some blocks of wood and plenty of wire, the mechanic fixed up: the spring so effectually, that driving with extra care and yet as fast as possible over very bad Toads we managed to make Poochi that night without further damage. The scenery which was again very fine on this day was beginning to change: it was obvious that we were now back in northern New bridge and, the car having been rapi the usual question arose: whether t push on at once, in case it started raining again, or whether to wait, in the hope that the roads would dry up alittle by the morrow. The short drive through the mud from the repair-shop to the inn, when in spite of chains we skidded majestically from one side of the road to the decided me in favour of the latter, and I passed the rest of the evening anxiously surveying the heavens. latitudes.
The green paddy-fields rising in tier upon tier up the steep hillsides had disappeared; in their stead were bare rugged mountains with wide sweeps of green and brown. The road surface was very bad at times: and became worse as we went north for it had been raining heavily, and the road in parts was unmetalled and very slippery. Darkness fell soon after we had crossed the last pas: and were descending into the valley the Wei River.
We' had some difficulty in finding our''way here, as the motor road comes to a sudden end, and we had to follow a track which meandered [across the wide stony bed of the river, and finally we had to ford the river in the dark. We reached Poochi after 9 pin., and just as we got in, the rain came down n sheets.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.