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3.

left the southern gate, we began to experience the real nature of inland travel in China. We arrived at Chieh-hsiu three days later. The following is a letter that I wrote to Mr. Bishop when I was still staying in Chieh-hsiu:]

"We left T'ai-yüan on the 9th and, traversing what is geologically a loess area, arrived at Chieh-hsiu three days later. [An open cart was hired with a mule a horse and a donkey to pull(Fig. 1-3). It took us fully three days to arrive at this district. But the journey was quite an interesting one. Geologigically we were traversing a loess area. The main road has probably faced many human changes; it is said that is as old as the springless mule cart itself, and like the cart, it has remained in the same old condition as it was first built. The first day was a somewhat bitter experience. The yellow dust was accumulated in places more than a foot think and was kicked up to more than a meter high at every point before we passed it. So at the time when we were supposed to Ta-chien, that is to have lunch, I was so much filled with the yellow dust that I almost lost my appetite entirely. The funny thing, however, was not the suffering at the time, but rather the joy derived from the novelty of the experiece [[experience]]. We travelled about thirty miles, and did not stop until nine o'clock in the evening, in an inn which was filled up with merchant mulateers. The next morning, we started at five in the morning and made up forty miles in a day, which is by all means an extraordinary record. We arrived at the district on the third day very early. The magistrate of the district is a distant relative of mine; I have not seen him for a long period. He received us with a kind of courtesy and kindness that is considered unusual even in the polite circle of Chinese society. It was just before the Chinese New Year Eve that we arrived, so we could not do much work for the succeeding three days. 

"There are something which we saw on the way that are well worth recording.] I was much impressed by the extensive [[strikethrough]] of [[/strikethrough]] - use of arches that is noticeable [[strikethrough]] are found [[/strikethrough]] from T'ai-yüan southward. It seems [[strikethrough]] t [[/strikethrough]] to be quite a peculiarity of Shansi architecture. The first series [[strikethrough]] of arches [[/strikethrough]] I saw was [[strikethrough]] are found [[/strikethrough]] along the Chêng-t'ai road. [In the beginning I thought that they were imported together with the railways; gradually I perceived that my theory is quite wrong.] All [[strikethrough]] along [[/strikethrough]] the way, in houses [[strikethrough]] from the buildings [[/strikethrough]] that were built on a grand style [[strikethrough]] to [[/strikethrough]] as well as in the small inns, we [[strikethrough]] have [[/strikethrough]] found such arches employed. Houses of this type are known as yao-fang(窑房). Native scolars told me that they are warm in winter and cool in summer, the style [[strikethrough]] is [[/strikethrough]] being derived from the early cave-dwellings. [[strikethrough]] days [[/strikethrough]] At present, we still find all the transitional stages from the [[strikethrough]] type of [[/strikethrough]] loess cave type to the most complicated yao-fang represented in this region.

We took advantage of the Chinese New Year to see the city of Chieh-hsiu [[strikethrough]] (Fig. 4-7) [[/strikethrough]] and also made some measurements of the natives, who [[strikethrough]] The people [[/strikethrough]] seem to be quite a heterogenious group (Fig. [[strikethrough]] 8-13 [[/strikethrough]]). [[strikethrough]] I have seen [[/strikethrough]] I saw bearded men who can be compared with [[strikethrough]] an [[/strikethrough]] the average Armenian; I [[strikethrough]] have [[/strikethrough]] saw also [[strikethrough]] soon [[/strikethrough]] men with hundred percent yellow moustaches. [It is quite interesting material that we are gathering.] [[green circle]] transfer from p.4.

On the fifteenth, we started our first trip to the mountain (mien-shan) in the southwestern part of the district [[strikethrough]] (Mien-shan) [[/strikethrough]] where some of the ancient temples are found. [We passed thru a big loess terrace with exceeds in places one hundred meters in depth and form three or four peneplanes. There are some scattered pottery sherds which give no sign or age. On the whole, I have seen no site either historical or prehistorical during this trip. The temples visited are

Transcription Notes:
Some words were misspelled then written over in black ink. The mistake is not transcribed, only the corrected word.