For the next two days we followed up the Ya, now continuously a gorge, Everywhere the landscape was one of great beauty, with foaming waters in_a rocky bed to Tuchlenlu, about which we hear so much and think of as completed, is scheduled to run, And indeed it seems a shame to destroy this attractive myth. "However, in the cause of {ruth..:.!- Actually there are a few stretches of well-made road on the first part of the stage to Tienchuan, and beyond that town there are several sections, each about 20 yards long and enurely disconnected from each other. One follows @ narrow ledge along a precipice for a long way. Suddenly one against. a. great rock fall and fg forced to climb w rudely constructed ladder for 20 vertical fect, Arrived at the last rung behold 2 sudden streten of motor road fifteen yards long. One more step and we have reached it, A few further steps Jand we nearly fall over on to a precipitous path about afoot wide. A few miles beyond Tienchuan this pasmodie road enjoys. a last con-Vulsion. and abruptly dies, The first two stages beyond Tien chuan seemed extremely short, specially og we had understood ' that Lutingchiso could be reached in three days from the former town. Actually these to stages, as the men should have known, can be done in one Tong day.
'The first night was 'Spent in q clean cottage at 'Tzushihkuan; the' second ina small room next'to the piglets' suite at Nanpatzu. Here we grew impatient delay and voiced our suspicious. The village council added. itself to our military one, andin the middle of the village street the truth "was threshed out, and this was that Lutingchiao could undeniably be reached in two more days, travelling 80 Ut per day. The chair coolles in~ Jeisted that this would be possible solely if we walked, our luggage being somewhat weighty (2). Anxious to reach the Tung Valley we agreed te this, and the next morning climbed 'a high saddle and so down into a delightfully wooded valley that later led up another gorge.
Soon after lunch the small town of Changhopa was reached, thoroughly derelict after the passage of the Reds, and with yet a few wretched Inhabitants. "Beyond, the gorge became raving whose walls were brilliant with the varied hues of magnificent rhododendrons in bloom, Here small waterfalls flashed under overhanging rocks, drenching flowering bushes with spray Iridescent in the shafts of, sunshine, The night was spent at Mengkoishan in a tolerable inn perched on 8 high ridge above the stream. This was our lest night before reaching Lutingchao, and T must say that, on the whole, the accommodation on this route, poor though it was, was im= measurably cleaner than the inns of the big road. No food, or practically none, was fo be bought, "however, jand as we had but little the guard very kindly supplied us with rice from their own plentiful supply.
Tachientu Up-to-date At Nanpatru we had taken the xeneral's photograph, sitting alone in his glory In the corner of a nondecript cabbage patch, and reminiscent of Buddha on his well-known lotus. In virtue of this ceremony the general gained enormous face, and so was more than anxious to be of ser~ vied to us. In parenthesis, it Is as well to mention that on the return journey T took, alone this time, the big road. Last year food wus' extremely scarce, going that way, owing to the recent Hed troubles, but this time there was food in plenty. Very courteous schoolmasters "granted me the privilege of putting up my camp bed in their schools, and 0 Tam not in a position to say whether the inns have improved correspondingly.
imagine they have not.
The next morning w very stiff climb for some hours started the day. At Inst the Mongan pass, about 10,000 high, was reached in the teeth of an extraordinarily high wind, and We were really thrilled "with the most glorious view of the Great! Snowy Range, from. the majestic Minya Gonkar northwards to the Ta-chien lu peaks, a sight that, owing to cloud frequency, is permitted to but few, and T must admit that Tem a Jonah as regards fine views from mountain tops. Beyond the pass lies the deep trench of the Tung River, which, after along, hot and tedious sent was finally reached. high up on the left bank, a few miles above Lutingchiao. "The route led gradually downwards to this town with its famous fron and plank bridge. 'The final two days' journey to Tachienl, the frst up the broad but deep trench of the Tung, and the second, up the savage Ta gorge, from. Wajseukou, has frequently' been described, Tachientu had become more up-to-cote than ever since the writer's visit last August and, on coming Back to the town after some two months in the interior, a. further change in' the same direction wat remarimble. The visit of a Nanking official had caused @ sudden interest street improvement, in whitewashing and cleaning, and in the shops tone could buy anything from coop a fretsaw.
From Tachienlu, accompanied Baron van der Bruggen, the writer enjoyed a preliminary trip of a few days westwards. "Afler a night at Cheto, a half-day stage from Ta-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.