SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



of the Ordos. By stopping and collecting at a 

 few places along this route, we would gauge our 

 arrival on the frontiers of the desert to sometime 

 in spring, the best season for our work. 



After leaving T'ai-yiian Fu, and crossing the 

 low mudflats of the Fen River, our road lay in a 

 south-westerly direction through well cultivated 

 country. Round the villages we noticed innumer- 

 able jujube trees {Zizyphus saliva), which grow 

 extensively in all the low lying valleys and plains 

 of Shansi, Chihli and Shensi. The fruit of these 

 trees resembles nothing so much as a date, and 

 when treated with honey makes an excellent 

 preserve. It is largely used in the manufacture 

 of sweetmeats, especially of the cheaper qualities, 

 while bread-steamers ^ use it instead of currants 

 in the manufacture of a kind of bun loaf. 



Our first stopping place was the small town of 

 Chin-ssu, famous for its temple and spring. The 

 latter gushes out of the base of the hill upon which 

 the temple is built, and irrigates the surrounding 

 fields, making the cultivation of rice on a large 

 scale possible. 



It also forms the motive power of a number of 

 paper mills, a coarse straw-paper being manu- 

 factured in the district. 



The temple of Chin-ssu is a very beautiful 

 edifice, composed as it is of magnificent buildings 



^ In north China, excepting in Kansu, the best bread is 

 steamed, and goes by the name of " Cheng mo." 



7 



