East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1859-12-01
FROM RUSSIA TO PEKIN.

a French traveller communicates to
the North China Herald a rambling ac-
count of land trip from the Russian
frontier to the city of Pekin, in China,
which furnishes some interesting, though
not altogether satisfactory information,
concerning that region of country, and
the great Chinese Capital. The writer
selected Kiakta, which lies due south
from Lake Baikal, in Russia, for his
point of departure, instead of Merit
chinsk, some distance to the northeast,
where the postal road from st. Peters
burg terminates, but for what reason
does not appear. From Kiakta to Urga,
the capital of the Chinese province of
Mongolia, and which is located near the
northern border of that province, the
country is very mountainous; from Urga
to the frontier of China proper is a level,
hard, sandy desert, without a drop of
water, or house, but peopled by hospit.
able Mongols, who live in tents, furnish
horses, camels, mutton, and water pre-
served in cisterns, and will divide all they
have with the weary traveller. Here the
cold in winter is terrific, the wind blow
ing in hurricanes, while during the short
summer the heat is quite African, and
the sand storms will tear the skin off and
blind the traveller. OF the way thence
forward to the Imperial city, and of the
city itself, we have the following animat-
ed sketch:
At the frontier of China proper, 900
miles from Kiakta, the desert stops short
in such an extraordinary manner as to
make this one of the most remarkable
spots on the earth. After gradual
ascent of 2000 feet from Urga, it is sud
denly broken like cliff facing the south;
an immense amphitheatre of mountains,
rivers, trees, and farm houses suddenly
burst upon the view, all bathed in sun.
light and smoking. as it were, with heat;
at great depth below, but twenty miles
off and not yet visible, lies the great
town of Ciouan Hua -fou, called "Callgan'
by the Russians, and beyond it, bounding
the horizon on the south, four-fold
range of precipitous mountains rise far
in the air; the first range is of chocolate
color, the two next have violet and
scarlet hue, and the last scarcely visible
and overhanging the plain of Peiin on
the north, is of light hazy blue Here
where we now stand, is large wall built
of loose stones, and kind of monument
which marks the actual frontier of China
and this is most enormously marked upon
all maps as the "great wall" although
the latter is one hundred miles further
south and is crossed at twenty five miles
from Pekin. From Calpan to Pellir
the country may be called chaos ot
mountains, and wherever a house cor
stand, an agglomeration of towns, all
surrounded by high walls, some of whicl
have begun to yield under the weight o
twenty centuries, and others have beer
buried to the top under the sand of the
Mongolian desert.
After passing under the Great Wall
whence the view is truly magnificent, til,
road suddenly goes down into deep anc
narrow gorge all choked with huge blocks
of granite fallen from the broken noun
: tains above, and here the descent, 70
eight miles, is so precipitous that tn
Mongols themselves have to dismount.-
| Five or six minor walls are now passed
r and they might equally be called worl
Of giants, for no matter what the slope
/ of the mountains may be, they rise irou
the bottom of precipices to their yer.
submits, and are still fastened to then
like so many serpcnts. When tho tray