SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
narrow and tortuous. It continues winding up 
this valley, which gradually widens and _ finally 
opens out into a small plain adjacent to that of 
Ta-t’ung Fu, from which it is separated only by 
a very slight rise. 
The scenery along the line is picturesque only 
round Tsai-kou-pu, though the high mountains 
north of Yang-kao have a rough beauty of their 
own. Along the base of this range the Great 
Wall, which has been lost sight of since leaving 
Kalgan, can be seen running parallel with the 
railway line. In places the country passed through 
appeared to be extremely fertile, though there 
are great stretches of land composed of rubble 
and rocky debris, brought down from the granite 
mountains, upon which nothing but a few strag- 
gling willows and poplars grow. 
As a severe sandstorm was raging when we 
arrived at Yang-kao, we decided to spend the 
night there and continue our journey next day. 
The town itself presented nothing of interest. It 
was, at the time of our first visit, of the usual type 
of small border town. A few months later, 
however, when I had occasion to visit it once more, 
the change was remarkable. In one summer an 
extensive trade in grain sprang into existence in 
the district, and Yang-kao being the centre of this 
district, and the terminus of the railway, by 
which the grain was shipped out of the coun- 
try, assumed for the time being a commercial 
103 
