SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 



importance superior to any other town in North 

 Shansi. Godowns, inns, hotels and even private 

 houses sprang up hke mushrooms round the 

 station, while there poured in from all parts of the 

 northern section of the province strings of carts 

 laden with sorghum, millet and linseed. Large 

 firms in Tientsin, which had never heard of the 

 town before, found it worth their while to send 

 European agents to buy up grain for them. 

 This prosperity did not last, however, for the 

 moment the line was carried on to Ta-t'ung Fu 

 and towns beyond, a great bulk of the grain 

 shipped at Yang-kao was shipped at these 

 towns instead. The line itself, however, will 

 remain of the greatest importance, as tapping 

 a very extensive agricultural area. A few more 

 such railways, carefully run, would go far towards 

 bringing in a steady revenue to the Chinese 

 Government, besides developing the hitherto 

 poverty-stricken districts along the Chinese fron- 

 tiers of Mongolia. 



The morning of April 30 broke fine and clear, 

 so that we made an early start. Travelling north- 

 ward, we soon reached the mouth of a deep valley 

 in the mountains, entering w^hich we turned west- 

 ward up a side gorge. By noon we had reached 

 the end of the latter, and crossing a low, almost 

 imperceptible ridge, marked by the crumbling 

 towers of the Great Wall as it passes from north 

 to south across the road, entered a rather wide 



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