Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-08-08
MORE ABOUT CHINA
BY A. c. BAKER
Visited Great Wall, the Greatest I'm
dertaking Ever Accomplished
by Man, is 1900 Miles
Long.
06O LEPERS SHOT
TO DEATH IN MANCHURIA
This Place is About Seven Times
Larger Than Iowa, Mostly
High Level Plain.
Continued from first page)

Continued from first page)
trading. II the evening see the sun
set from location on the wall of the
city and take a last view of that city
which wish we might spend a winter
in.
On Thursday the 18th of April we
leave for Tientsin, stopping at the
Aston house. Tientsin has a popula-
ton of over one million and since the
boxer revolution has undergone many
changes that have much improved
the city. At that time as punish
ment for the many crimes committed
they tore down the walls, using for
railroad ballast, and where it stood
nave put in a fine city street so one
can ride round the city in comfort.
Along this street now is done the
principal business. All nations have
concessions and it has lost much of its
former appearance. Its location on
the Pehio and Grand Canal made it
the port of entry for a great interior
country. 1t is AZ miles from the sea.
That which most interested me in
our ride over the city was the tomb
of Ii Hung Chang the great man of
China who made his home here. His
tomb in an immense Buddhist temple
with a principal marker mounted on
an immense bronze tortoise will give
notice of his great work in making
of this most modern city.
The Buddhist temple in which he
is buried was built in his memory
and the finest in the city. 1t has fine
grounds just in the rear OF the Vicer
oys Yamen.
Our train leaving in the night We
get in our special sleeper il the eve
ming and the following morning on
getting out find we are at Peitaiho
one of the great summer resorts Of
China and the home of many of the
Americans interested in the fiowery
kingdom. 1t is 24O miles north of
Tientsin.
During our trip through China our
greatest trouble was the exchange on
our currency American money,
whether gold or silver or bankers or
express checks at great discoun.
and il each place where we went at
different value. The Mexican dollar
only having a fixed value not even
their own money having any stabl-
ity. You could always get $1.20 for
a Mexican dollar if you took it in
small change.
We are travelling now through a
country where they have some ami
mas to do their hauling, usually dom
keys, which you will see hitched to
single shoveled pillow with one ham
die driving the donkeys and man be-
tween the donkeys holding the ton
que and regulating the. depth of the
pillow. The country very level and
fertilizer in piles all over the fields.
This fertilizer they dig out of places
where it has at some time been
great amount of animal life and COW
cred for thousands of years but
they dig down AID haul the portion
that has this surrounding as fertili-
ger for their worn fields.
They plant crop and cultivate
leaving the wheat rows far enough
apart that before harvest they may
plant another crop between and
when the wheat is secured the other
crop is so far started that it too will
ripen before winter.
Everything is sown in rows and !
did not see weed in all my trip grow
ing between the rows. They were SOW
ing the crop between the rows when
we were travelling thru this part OF
China. A small stone roller was used
either drawn by a donkey or man to
cover the Caffre corn that was being
planted between the wheat rows.
At $3.50 we reach Shan hal kwan
pronounced (Shan wan) 1t is here we
see the end of the great wall where it
comes down to the sea, our train cut
ting through it. 1t has Largely gone
to decay here and not as imposing as
where we visited north of Picking.
The walled city of Shan-hai-kwan lies
about four miles from the railroad
its wall towering above its mud huts,
We now enter Malchuria. That
our reader may get an impression OF
its size it is about seven times as
large as Iowa, mostly a high level
plain like western Kansas. We ride
through many towns showing little
thrift, the country a dry desert look
ing one, the dust almost smotheriag
one.
The country is mostly now cultivat-
ed to beans and at each station are