Across China on Foot

Across China on Foot

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Title: Across China on Foot
Author: Edwin Dingle
Release Date: September 10, 2004 [EBook #13420]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ACROSS CHINA ON FOOT
By EDWIN JOHN DINGLE
1911
IN GRATEFUL ESTEEM
DURING MY TRAVELS IN INTERIOR CHINA I ONCE LAY AT
THE POINT OF DEATH. FOR THEIR UNREMITTING KINDNESS

DURING A LONG ILLNESS, I NOW AFFECTIONATELY
INSCRIBE THIS VOLUME TO MY FRIENDS, MR. AND MRS. A.
EVANS, OF TONG-CH'UAN-FU, YÜN-NAN, SOUTH-WEST
CHINA, TO WHOSE DEVOTED NURSING AND UNTIRING
CARE I OWE MY LIFE.

CONTENTS
BOOK I.
FROM THE STRAITS TO SHANGHAI--INTRODUCTORY
FIRST JOURNEY.


CHAPTER I.
FROM SHANGHAI UP THE LOWER YANGTZE TO ICHANG
SECOND JOURNEY--ICHANG TO CHUNG-KING THROUGH
THE YANGTZE GORGES.


CHAPTER II.
THE ICHANG GORGE

CHAPTER III.
THE YANGTZE RAPIDS

CHAPTER IV.
THE YEH T'AN RAPID. ARRIVAL AT KWEIEU
THIRD JOURNEY--CHUNG-KING TO SUI-FU (VIA LUCHOW).


CHAPTER V.

BEGINNING OF THE OVERLAND JOURNEY

CHAPTER VI.
THE PEOPLE OF SZECH'WAN
FOURTH JOURNEY--SUI-FU TO CHAO-T'ONG-FU (VIA
LAO-WA-T'AN).


CHAPTER VII.
DESCRIPTION OF JOURNEY FROM SUI-FU

CHAPTER VIII.
SZECH'WAN AND YÜN-NAN
THE CHAO-T'ONG REBELLION OF 1910.


CHAPTER IX.
THE TRIBES OF NORTH-EAST YÜN-NAN, AND MISSION
WORK AMONG THEM.


CHAPTER X.
FIFTH JOURNEY--CHAO-T'ONG-FU TO TONG-CH'UAN-FU.


CHAPTER XI.

AUTHOR MEETS WITH ACCIDENT

CHAPTER XII.
YÜN-NAN'S CHECKERED CAREER. ILLNESS OF AUTHOR
BOOK II.
FIRST JOURNEY--TONG-CH'UAN-FU TO THE CAPITAL.


CHAPTER XIII.
DEPARTURE FOR BURMA. DISCOMFORTS OF TRAVEL

CHAPTER XIV.
YÜN-NAN-FU, THE CAPITAL
SECOND JOURNEY--YÜN-NAN-FU TO TALI-FU (VIA
CH'U-HSIONG-FU).


CHAPTER XV.
DOES CHINA WANT THE FOREIGNER?

CHAPTER XVI.
LU-FENG-HSIEN. MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRY. CHINESE
UNTRUTHFULNESS

CHAPTER XVII.
KWANG-TUNG-HSIEN TO SHACHIAO-KA

CHAPTER XVIII.
STORM IN THE MOUNTAINS. AT HUNGAY

CHAPTER XIX.
THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN YÜN-NAN. ARRIVAL AT
TALI-FU
THIRD JOURNEY--TALI-FU TO THE MEKONG VALLEY.


CHAPTER XX.
HARDEST PART OF THE JOURNEY.HWAN-LIEN-P'U

CHAPTER XXI.
THE MOUNTAINS OF YÜN-NAN. SHAYUNG. OPIUM SMOKING
FOURTH JOURNEY--THE MEKONG VALLEY TO TENGYUEH.


CHAPTER XXII.
THE RIVER MEKONG

CHAPTER XXIII.
THROUGH THE SALWEN VALLEY TO TENGYUEH

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE LI-SU TRIBE OF THE SALWEN VALLEY
FIFTH JOURNEY--TENGYUEH (MOMIEN) TO BHAMO IN
UPPER BURMA.


CHAPTER XXV.
SHANS AND KACHINS

CHAPTER XXVI.
END OF LONG JOURNEY. ARRIVAL IN BURMA

_To travel in China is easy. To walk across China, over roads
acknowledgedly worse than are met with in any civilized country in the
two hemispheres, and having accommodation unequalled for crudeness
and insanitation, is not easy. In deciding to travel in China, I
determined to cross overland from the head of the Yangtze Gorges to
British Burma on foot; and, although the strain nearly cost me my life,
no conveyance was used in any part of my journey other than at two
points described in the course of the narrative. For several days during
my travels I lay at the point of death. The arduousness of constant
mountaineering_--_for such is ordinary travel in most parts of Western
China_--_laid the foundation of a long illness, rendering it impossible
for me to continue my walking, and as a consequence I resided in the
interior of China during a period of convalescence of several months
duration, at the end of which I continued my cross-country tramp.
Subsequently I returned into Yün-nan from Burma, lived again in
Tong-ch'uan-fu and Chao-t'ong-fu, and traveled in the wilds of the
surrounding country. Whilst traveling I lived on Chinese food, and in
the Miao country, where rice could not be got, subsisted for many days
on maize only.
My sole object in going to China was a personal desire to see China
from the inside. My trip was undertaken for no other purpose. I carried
no instruments (with the exception of an aneroid), and did not even
make a single survey of the untrodden country through which I
occasionally passed. So far as I know, I am the only traveler, apart from
members of the missionary community, who has ever resided far away
in the interior of the Celestial Empire for so long a time.
Most of the manuscript for this book was written as I went along>--a
good deal of it actually by the roadside in rural China. When my
journey was completed, the following news paragraph in the North
China Daily News (of Shanghai) was brought