SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 
cept that the temperature remained very low, 
so that we were forced to go back into winter 
clothes once more. Our road lay along deep 
mountain valleys, the sides of which were chiefly 
of granite, very bare and rugged, and we crossed 
two steep passes. By the end of the second 
day we had reached the edge of the K’uei-hua- 
ch’éng plain, crossing which we reached that town 
at noon next day. 
We spent one day looking round the town 
and lazing about, while a coolie was sent in 
search of an old Mongol hunter. Our friends of 
course had their business to attend to, which 
would keep them in town a fewdays. K’uei-hua- 
ch’éng, though in no way like the usual cities of 
North China, is, nevertheless, a place of great 
importance and no mean dimensions. It consists 
of two sections, one Chinese and the other Manchu. 
The latter, known as Sui-yiian-ch’éng, lies a mile or 
so to the north-east of the former, is enclosed 
by a strong wall and is the seat of Government. 
Here lives a large community of Manchus, number- 
ing some ten thousand, the adult males of which 
are, or were up till recently, conscript government 
troops. 
The Chinese portion, which is K’uei-hua-ch’éng 
itself, consists of a small walled town surrounded 
by extensive suburbs. The population of this 
section, which, to a large extent, is floating, 
has been estimated at 40,000, which, however, is 
109 
