42 ROAD TO PEKING. 



for all Europeans, and from the nickname applied to 

 all of us of Yang-kzuei-tsz, i.e. ' foreign devil.' 



The European will hear himself called by no 

 other name ; and on our first entrance into China 

 Proper we experienced all the miseries which await 

 the traveller from the West within the limits of the 

 Celestial Empire. But of this later. I will now 

 continue my narrative. 



With the assistance of our countrymen at Kalgan 

 we hired two riding-horses for the journey to Peking, 

 and some mules for the baggage. Europeans usually 

 travel in litters carried between two mules, but we 

 preferred riding, because we could see the country 

 better in this way than in closed litters. 



The distance from Kalgan to Peking is about 

 140 miles, usually performed in four days. Several 

 halts are made on the road at inns, most of which 

 are kept by Mahomedan emigrants from Eastern 

 Turkestan. Good inns are very difficult of access 

 for the European, who is shown into mean caravan- 

 serais, where he is charged double, triple, and even 

 ten times the usual price. But after sitting for six 

 or seven consecutive hours in the saddle, chilled 

 with the night air, one is glad of any shelter. In 

 spite of the well-known liberality of Europeans, such 

 is the hatred to the ' foreign devils ' that we were 

 sometimes refused a night's lodging, notwithstanding 

 the intervention of our Chinese mule-drivers. This 

 befell us at the town of Sha-chang, where we were 

 obliged to ride for an hour from one inn to another, 

 offering ten times the usual charge, before obtaining 

 shelter in a dirty, cold room. 



