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[[underlined]] Chapter XIII. [[/underlined]]   269.

as he knew, no such wares were being made in China today.

[[underlined]] Decision to visit Keui-hua Ch'êng. [[/underlined]]
     We did not care to begin actual excavations prematurely, for fear of prejudicing our case with the provincial and local authorities; yet neither did we wish to remain idle. So we now decided to pay a short visit to the twin cities of Sui-yüan 綏遠 and Keui-hua Ch'êng 歸化城 situated just northeast of the great northward bend of the Yellow River. The region was one, according to the old Chinese accounts, where many conflicts had taken place in ancient times between the agricultural Chinese and the nomadic Hsiung-nu^[[.]] [[superscript]] (242) [[/superscript]] Of these strug-
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[[superscript]] (242) [[/superscript]]  The ancient land of the Hsiung-nu (who are generally believed to have been^[[|]]of the Turkic linguistic stock) was that now occupied by the Mongols; but there has been little change in the fundamental cultural type, of pastoral nomadism.
    The earliest mention of the Hsiung-nu under that name that I have encountered in the ancient Chinese records refers to the year 318 before our Era; see the [[underlined]] Shih chi [[/underlined]], chapt. v, fol. 21-b. Names somewhat similar in sound were however applied far earlier to certain non-Chinese peoples on the northern borders of China proper, who may or may not have been the ancestors of the Hsiung-nu.
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gles we hoped to find traces of some sort; and in this, as we shall see, we were not altogether disappointed.

[[underlined]] Journey to Kuei-hua Ch'êng. [[/underlined]]
     Accordingly on October 3rd we took the early morning train bound to Sui-yüan. For some distance north (upstream) from the little station of P'u-tzǔ Wan [[strikethrough]] (regarding the latter see pp. 231 [[underlined]] sq. [[/underlined]] and note 239, on[[|]] page 267) [[/strikethrough]] the valley of the Yü Ho, along which the railway passes, contracts to form a narrow, rocky, and steep-sided gorge. This, together with the rugged, broken country on either hand, must have offered a difficult if not impassable obstacle to bodies of mounted warriors. Hence invasions from the north into the Ta T'ung area most probably followed the broad