CHAPTER fi 
ON THE LI-TI-P’ING 
Nortu of Tali are bare rounded hills of red earth, and 
richly cultivated plains tucked in amongst the mountains 
where, mile on mile, wave fields of kidney-bean, wheat, and 
blue-flowered flax. 
Sometimes we would meet strings of women carrying 
loads of salt, cotton, beans, or rice to the local market and 
driving mules laden with planks and firewood. Curiously 
enough these women supported the loads on their backs by 
means of a strap passing round the forehead, after the 
manner of jungle tribes and dwarf races, thus walking with 
bent backs and contracted chest; and certainly, except for 
their clothes, the people about here had nothing Chinese in 
their appearance, being mostly Minchia with a very pro- 
nounced type of countenance. 
One evening we came upon an isolated limestone hill, 
curiously sculptured into holes and caves, and from its base 
issued two very hot springs smelling strongly of sulphurous 
gases. Such springs are abundant in Western China at the 
foot of every great mountain range. On the fourth day 
after leaving Tali we reached Chien-ch‘uan, an important 
market city standing at the head of a small plain, partly 
occupied by a lake, from which rises the Yang-pi river. 
Continuing northwards, the undulating valley began to 
take on more and more the character of plateau country, 
the ascent being very gradual, albeit we were hemmed in 
by mountains on either side, those to the east still capped 
by winter snow. There was little cultivation now, the 
valley floor being frequently boggy and used chiefly for 
grazing purposes, while the uncleared mountain slopes 
