446 SOUTHERN DZUNGARIA 



system from this most out-of-the-way corner of China 

 to all points of the compass. Urumchi, by this new 

 system, is brought within forty-five days of Pekin, and 

 letters will reach London, via Siberia, within thirty 

 days. The local post is carried to Kulja, a distance of 

 430 miles, in four and a half days, and to Chuguchak 

 in the same length of time. In earlier days, under 

 Chinese management, the post took three times as long, 

 and even then safe delivery was uncertain. This is the 

 result of careful organization, by means of a sj'stematic 

 staging of the route into regular distances, and by the 

 enforcement of a time-limit. Well-mounted riders, in 

 relays, carry the mail-bags for stages of 80-90 li each ; 

 the service being kept up day and night across the 

 whole width of China. A combined, local, passenger and 

 mail service has been organized on this same principle 

 between the capital and Guchen, and the journey, which 

 formerly took from five to six days, is now accomplished 

 in a day and a half. 



In spite of the distance from Pekin, caravans of mer- 

 chandise creep across from China to Urumchi, taking 

 eight months or a year on the road. These caravans 

 generally come direct by the northern route across Mon- 

 golia, for they carry wares especially for the Urumchi 

 market. The capital thus laid out, however, obliges the 

 merchants to charge at the rate of 200 to 300 per cent, 

 on the Pekin price. On the other hand, we bought 

 cigarettes of the " Aden Tobacco Co." at the rate of 

 3s. per hundred ; whether they were Japanese " fakes " 

 or not we cannot say, but they seemed uncommonly 

 good to us after a year's experience of all kinds of local 

 products — both Russian and Chinese. They were, in any 

 case, cheap enough, after being transported 1,500 miles 



