CHAPTER IX - PEKING

Summary

On the fifteenth day after leaving T'ai-yuen-fu we drew near Peking. Our progress during the last few miles was very slow, owing to the immense amount of traffic on the road; for miles it swarmed with camels. In about three hours I counted 2113. This does not represent the entire number we passed, for in many places they were so numerous that it was quite impossible to enumerate them. Many of these at the close of the winter season were going back light to Mongolia, Thibet, and elsewhere, and looked as though they needed to be fed up in prospect of another winter's work. The road by which we entered Peking presented one of the busiest spectacles I ever witnessed. It is of great breadth, and lined with shops on either side; in the centre is a raised causeway—the road proper; immediately in front of the shops on either side is a small space reserved for foot-passengers, while the spaces between the road and foot-ways, averaging not less than fifty feet on either side, are occupied with the stalls of traders, or more frequently the goods offered for sale are spread out on the ground. Almost every inch of unoccupied ground was taken up with sellers and buyers, or interested spectators.