FROM KULJA TO KUMUL 445 



(Provincial Judge), a Tartar General, and a considerable 

 garrison, some of whom have been drilled under Euro- 

 pean instruction and armed with modern weapons. The 

 population is said now to stand at 70,000 ; Bonin, in 

 1900, estimated it at 40,000 ; and in 1905 it was placed at 

 50,000. These figures show the advance Urumchi has 

 made during recent years. Of this number of inhabitants, 

 one quarter are said to be Chantos, some of whom are 

 Russian, and some Chinese subjects. Outside the walls 

 of the city there exists a quarter entirely composed of 

 Russian subjects, represented by Chantos or Sarts, 

 Tartars, and a few Siberian merchants, to advance whose 

 interests a paternal Government has placed a Consul- 

 General, a Vice-Consul, and a guard of fifty Cossacks. 



Here alone does the traveller in the New Dominion 

 encounter a real Chinese town. Urumchi is typically 

 Chinese, its streets lack nothing of the atmosphere of a 

 town in China Proper. You may see the retinues of high 

 officials, and Chinese ladies in the latest Pekin fashions ; 

 you can buy Pekin goods — at three times the original cost, 

 and encounter men from every province in the Empire. 

 Urumchi is the centre of trade and fashion ; there are 

 several theatres, a gunpowder factory, an electric-light 

 plant ; and a far better choice of goods in the bazaars 

 than one could find in any other town in Central Asia. 



An innovation, which has recently brought Urumchi 

 and Sin-Kiang into greater prominence and into closer 

 proximity to the outside world, is the wise employment 

 by the Chinese Government of Europeans to reconstruct 

 and manage the postal system. Mr. Petersen, to whom 

 this work had been entrusted, was our host whilst staying 

 at Urumchi, and we owe a great deal to his hospitality. 

 After two years' work he has organized a complete postal 



