184 THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF KWEICHOW 



rock and connected by stone staircases. The views from 

 them over the town and up the valley are exceptionally fine, 

 and some of the wood carvings contained in them are as 

 beautiful as any I have seen in Chinese temples. The river 

 winds down the valley like a jade-coloured ribbon, dotted 

 with white sails and seems to lose itself below the cliff, 

 then turns at right angles through a narrow gorge, and is 

 so shallow that the boats have to travel backward down 

 stream for a considerable distance : because the rudder would 

 be liable to strike on the rocky river bed and is therefore 

 removed. 



At Chen Yuen we were hospitably entertained by Mr. 

 and Mrs. Davies of the C.I.M., who made arrangements for 

 us to go by boat down the Yuan river into Hunan. Owing to 

 the opium smuggling trade it was not easy to get a boat 

 at a reasonable figure, and we were afraid lest the boatman 

 should make use of the fact that our luggage was so small 

 to take in some of the drug on his own account. However 

 an agreement was come to and we started after three 

 days spent very pleasantly exploring the neighbourhood and 

 sketching. It was a pleasant climb up the mountain side 

 to a shrine, whence the tocsin sounds, when there is a fire 

 in the town below. The city wall starts from the edge of 

 a precipice, by which the heavenly powers are said to guard 

 the city on that side : the wall runs along the mountain top 

 for some distance and then drops down to the western side 

 of the town till it conies to the liver. We were glad to get 

 rid of cur military escort here, and to pay off our chair 

 bearers and coolies. The price per coolie for the eight days 

 from Kweiyang was three dollars fifty cents, and six months 

 later the price would have been double. Things are going 

 from bad to worse, and Kweichow certainly needs someone 

 with a strong hand to take up its government. The reads 

 are in a shocking condition, which makes travelling much 

 more irksome than need be. Highway robbery seems 

 universal and puts a stop to most of the trade, opium 

 smoking is demoralising the youth of the province and the 

 cultivation of opium is everywhere on the increase. The 

 province which is full of mineral wealth is practically profit- 

 less and education is at a standstill. 



What a contrast between the last town where we stayed 

 in Kweichow, Chen Yuen, and the first town we stayed at in 

 Hunan, Changteh ! The former dirty and dead alive, the 

 latter clean, prosperous, pulsating with new energies, educa- 

 tional, social, industrial, etc., under the beneficent rule of 

 General Feng, withdrawn, alas ! shortly afterwards. All 

 progress in China to-day appears to hang on Individuals. 



