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 Fén River, our road lay in a 
south-westerly direction through well cultivated 
country. Round the villages we noticed innumer- 
able jujube trees (Zizyphus sativa), 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 1 use it instead of currants 
in the manufacture of a kind of bun loaf. 
Our first stopping place was the small town of 
Chin-ssi, 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-ssi is a very beautiful 
edifice, composed as it is of magnificent buildings 
1 In north China, excepting in Kansu, the best bread is 
steamed, and goes by the name of “* Chéng mo.” 
7 
