Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/363

 metropolis. These carts are the imperial-highway substitutes for our railways, cabs and omnibuses, but they have no springs. A railway is being built from Tientsin to Peking. Notwith- standing this they might be comfortable enough if so constructed as to allow the passenger to sit down, and used only on a perfectly level road. Tao had himself carefully packed into his conveyance with straw, but as for me, not liking the look of the vehicles, I determined to walk at least a part of the way. There may be passages in what I have still to relate which may seem strange to a European reader, and I may be allowed perhaps, therefore, here to remind him. that I am describing only w^hat I actually saw and experienced. Soon we were entering Tung-chow, the carts plunging and lumbering behind us over what at one time had been a massively constructed Mongolian causeway. Gallantly the carters struggled on beneath an ancient archway, when suddenly the thoroughfare was found jammed by a heavily laden cart drawn by a team of mules and donkeys, that had stuck fast among the broken blocks of stone. Straightway the air re-echoed with the execrations of a hundred carters, who found their progress obstructed, and it was full half an hour before we managed to pass. I should think that the distinguished members of the Peking Board of Works can hardly have ventured so far as Tung-chow on their tours of inspection. A few moderate-sized stone walls thrown across the street there could scarcely prove more serious impe- diments to the traffic than the existing dilapidated pavement. One may now travel on a well-constructed railway from a station adjoining the Taku forts, to Tientsin. This line will eventually be carried to Peking. The rails and plant for the extension were imported during the war. As for the town and its inhab- itants, we had ample leisure to inspect them before the carts