540 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
a specific culture, and which would also serve in many respects as 
typical for all China. I gradually, however, extended my travels 
to cover a large part of the entire country. 
T spent the first months in Peking in making preparatory studies of 
China. As soon as the weather permitted I made short excursions 
to the imperial tombs of the Ming dynasty, and to the eastern impe- 
rial tombs of the present dynasty, two days’ journey from Peking, 
where the late Empress- Dowager was recently buried. I then visited 
the ancient summer residence at Jehol, five days’ journey from 
Peking, where in the midst of a wild mountainous region a number 
of important Lama monasteries are scattered around a famous impe- 
rial hunting park. 
The summer was passed in the charming neighborhood of Peking, 
especially among the western hills, with its numerous magnificent 
temples, of which Pi-yiin-sze, the temple of the Blue-black Clouds, 
is regarded as one of the most beautiful in all China. 
Then followed a seven months’ trip to the western imperial tombs 
of the present dynasty, where the remains of the deceased Emperor 
will be buried. Thence to Wut’aishan, the sacred mountain, which is 
visited chiefly by the Mongolians. On this occasion, the only one 
during all my travels in China, I was for some weeks accompanied by 
a friend. At all other times I traveled alone with my Chinese follow- 
ers, that at times numbered 30, including the burden bearers. 
The train carried us south over the bridge across the dangerous 
Yellow River to K’aiféngfu, the capital of Honan; thence a four days’ 
trip down the Yellow River, at a time when the dam had just been 
broken and when the river in places was so broad that the farther 
bank could not be seen. In Shantung I visited the sacred mountain 
T’aishan, then K’iifu, the birthplace of Confucius and the site of his 
tomb. The winter drove me southward. I spent Christmas in 
Ningpo and in January, 1908, I dwelt alone, remote from the world, 
on the island Pu-té-shan, the sacred island of Kuanyin, the goddess 
of mercy. 
Upon returning to Peking by sea, I prepared for a long 12 months’ 
journey, to extreme western and southern China, that carried me 
overland across the whole of China; first to T’aiytianfu, capital of 
Shansi, then diagonally across that Province to Lu ts’un, where there 
is a large salt marsh, that provides salt for the four northwestern 
Provinces. 
Shansi, like Shensi, is a dry Province. In some years there is almost 
no rain at all. A mild famine is expected with considerable certainty 
every 5 years and a serious one at 10 year periods. This aridity 
favors the manufacture of salt, which is accomplished by simple 
evaporation in the bright sunshine. This ceases in rainy weather. 
Wheat is then grown. The salt Mandarin expressed the conditions 
