190 A COLLECTING TRIP 
in China and Japan. I hope some day I may go back 
there again; it is absolutely in a class by itself for 
beauty of scenery and interest. The climate is not bad 
at all after you get used to it. We were simply 
splendidly treated by every one. 
Lots of love to you all — every one 
From your son 
Tom. 
Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits. 
Pekin, May 29, 1907. 
Dear Pa : 
Just think of my really seeing Pekin. It is one 
of the most interesting places we have been to — so 
different from anything we have seen before. I sent 
Mother a lot of postal cards which ought to give you 
a very vague idea of what this place is like. It is 
divided into four cities : The Chinese, the Tartar, the 
Imperial and the Forbidden. Each city is walled. The 
Imperial city is inside the Tartar city and the For- 
bidden city inside the Imperial. The Chinese City 
wall surrounds them all. The walls are most enorm- 
ous, with watch towers every now and then on them, 
and huge gates in them. The streets are frightful — 
muddy when it rains and about a foot of dust when it 
does not. They are very broad and consist for the 
most part of huge granite stones, six by three feet and 
smaller, laid one right next the other. Caravans of 
twenty camels or more are a very common sight. The 
people are all so interesting to watch. You see a big 
mandarin swell, dressed up in a beautiful embroidered 
coat, driving along in a two-wheeled cart (a good deal 
like a small tip cart), pulled by a mule and feeling as 
