SPORT AND SCIENCE ON THE 
on the 28th it cleared up long enough for the 
annual races to be held. We witnessed these, 
and were much amused to see Chinese grooms 
from Shanghai dressed in all the splendour of 
their European masters’ cast-off riding clothes, 
racing neck and neck with gaudily dressed Mon- 
gols. A good turf track had been marked out, 
supposedly the size of the Shanghai course, and 
the races were conducted as nearly as_ possible 
on the same lines as those at the Treaty Port 
meetings. 
These races are not to be compared with the 
long twenty, forty or sixty li races indulged in by 
the Mongols, in which the jockeys are young boys 
and girls, who ride bare-backed. Unfortunately we 
just missed seeing one of these proper races, which 
took place at a neighbouring chief’s encampment 
a few days later. Regarding one of these races 
we were told an amusing story. A certain Mongol 
chief offered a prize of one hundred taels (about 
£15) to the winner of a fifty li race (about fifteen 
miles). He also offered a second prize of twenty 
taels. The race was to be between two camps 
along a certain route not yet specified. It so 
happened that in the district there was a pony 
which hitherto had remained unbeaten. On the 
day of the race the owner of this pony was pur- 
posely given wrong instructions as to the route 
to be taken, being directed to take a rough and 
roundabout way to the winning post. All the 
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