The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-27
FROM TAKU TO PEKIN.
New York SUM

The name Taku signifies great
mouth" 1t is borne by the little fish
ing hamlet at the mouth Of the Pei
river, the Pei-Ho. 1t is the port Of
Tien Tsin, and is twenty-five miles
by rail from that city. Formerly steam
ers from Shanghai went directly up the
river to Tien Tsin, but the mud banks
now piled up at the mouth OF the river
prevent access and vessels Of consider
able draught could not go up the river
anyhow, because sediment has made it
shallow. The village of Taku now in
the possession of the allies merely con-
sists of huts occupied by fishermen, a
railroad station and a telegraph office.
The region between Taku and Tien
Tsin is a low plain, without a tree,
scarcely a clump of bushes and very
few habitations. The few houses along
the river are the homes of fishermen
and their families
The railroad between Taku and Tien
Tsin, twenty-five miles long, has a dou-
BILE track. and traffic in time of peace
is quite large. The railroad between
Tien Tsin and Pekin is just eighty
miles long and there are eight stations
between the two cities, which, named
in order, are Siaotse Yangstun, Lola,
Langfang, Anting, Huangstun, Fengtai
and Machiatu, the northern terminus
of the railroad, four miles from one
of the southern gates of the Chinese
city, which is the south part of Pekin.
The Boxers began 10 destroy this rail-
road at the station of Langfang, about
thirty miles from Pekin. They carried
on their work of destruction in both
directions, and are said to have made
a very thorough job Of it. There is no
longer any railroad, and it must be
/ counted out as means of transporta-
ton for a campaign against Pekin.
There remain two routes for an advan-
cling army TO follow
One of these routes is the Pei-Ho. The
/ river, however, is very shallow and
can be navigated only by vessels Of
ces that went to Pekin in 1860 did not
| take the river route and il is not likely
that troops would depend upon the riv-
er at the present time. The Pei-Ho,
| however, viii probably be made very
useful in the transportation of supplies
| The journey is made by polling up
| stream and making use of sails as
much as possible. 1t usually requires
! seven days.
The second route is the wagon road
/ to the west of the river, which was fol-
! lowed by the Anglo French army. This
/ force had to repair the road as it went
along and it was in very good cOndi-
/ ton when the army left the country.
| Nothing apparently has been done to
! keep ii in good order since that time,
! forty years ago, and it is now in eX-
| ecrable condition. In summer il is knee
! deep in dust and in winter the wagons
sink TO the hubs in mud. 1t passes for
| the last fifteen miles through the su-
perb hunting park of the Chinese en-
/ perors just south Of Pekin, and separ-
ated from it by a swampy plain. This
is the great park of Nanhaitze and Eu-
ropeans and other foreigners have al
ways been jealousy excluded from it.
Because the government would not per-
nit the railroad TO be built through the
park it was necessary to make a long
detour to the west. A fortified wall.
forty miles in length, surrounds the park
which contains about eighty square
miles.
The Chinese people. however, are by
no means excluded from the park. for
the wagon road from Tien Tsin runs
| through il, and there are numerous
villages, cultivated tracts and military
| station in the woods Though the
distance is less than eighty miles. wag-
ons take from four 10 five days to trav-
erse this road between Tien Tsin and
Pekin.