SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
mountains by this valley. The line follows the 
northern side, passing a small town named Hsiah- 
hua-yuan. Presently the valley widens out once 
more into a small plain, on which is situated the 
important city of Hsuan-hua Fu. Here our train 
stopped for a few minutes. 
After leaving this place the line bends north- 
ward, leaving the main valley, and, following the 
course of a smaller one, finally reaches Kalgan. 
We arrived at about seven o’clock, after an 
eleven hours’ journey. Putting up at a Chinese 
hotel, I went in search of the British American 
Tobacco Company’s headquarters. Here I found 
my friends G. W. Brodie and F. M. Schréder, 
‘whose. acquaintance I had recently made in 
Tientsin, and received a kind invitation to have 
my meals with them while in Kalgan. 
They told me they were expecting two friends 
from Tientsin, R. K. Douglas and R. G. Buchan, 
who were on their way up for a shooting trip. 
Next morning my friends took me for a ride 
round Kalgan. The town in some ways is typical 
of those along the border, though it presents many 
peculiar features of its own. The name Kalgan 
by which it is known to Europeans, is the Mongol 
one, and is never used by Chinese. Instead they 
call it Chang-chia-k’ou, which means “ the mouth, 
or opening of the Chang family,” and signifies that 
originally the place must have consisted of a few 
buildings situated at the mouth of the valley, 
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