SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
A wide expanse of sand, thickly studded with 
trees gave promise of better things in store. 
On the following day, April 11, we lost no time 
in leaving behind us the miserable town of Ching- 
pien, and for some miles travelled northward 
through a country that grew more promising with 
each succeeding step. Flocks of stately cranes 
fed on the stretches of reddish sand, while in- 
numerable trees, chiefly willows, arranged in long 
rows, relieved our eyes, after the days of barren 
wastes we had endured. 
In crossing a deep ravine, just after leaving 
Ching-pien, we nearly lost one of our mules with 
its precious burden, comprising our only stores, 
in some deadly quicksands. It was only a miracle 
that saved the animal. As it was much of our 
food got wet, and some of it was rendered use- 
less. 
That evening we reached the end of the broad 
belt of trees, and put up at a small farmstead 
named Ning-t’ieh-liao, which we were surprised 
to find was owned by Chinese. 
We learnt that the Chinese here, and elsewhere 
along the Ordos border, are gradually pushing 
further and further into the Mongol territory. 
By planting rows of trees they prevent the 
drifting and piling up into dunes of the loose 
shifting sand. They manage thus to grow crops 
of millet, such areas as they do not cultivate 
producing a coarse grass. This with the leaves 
17 c 
