Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press., 1926-06-03
A TRIP TO SOOCHOW, CHINA
By PERRY A. BOOKER
Y2C, U. S. N.

because L h2d with me All CHBiiSu w
Chinese translating phrase book,
which I had purchased the day be-
fore. When we wanted to stop,
would look in the book and say,
"Ding-ih-ding," which means "stop
for little while" The Chinese un-
derstood this very well so we used
this phrase quite often. When the
donkeys were going too slow and
some enc in the crowd wanted to
speed up. by referring to the book,
we would tell the collie, who was in
charge of the donkey, for we had
with us four attendants to take care
of the donkeys, "Bau-le-Khwa-tien,"
which means "go faster" and to go
slower, we would say "Bau-le man.
ten"
Our travelling carried us through
the many crooks and turns of the
small city The streets here ALI have
stones roughly laid and travelling on
foot is very difficult. But as we were
riding we did not mind. At places
we had to sit straight and be careful
because the close streets, which are
hardly @Sre than four feet wide,
were so crowded.
Arriving at our first stop, "The
Foo Chu San Tah Pagoda. "a pag0-
da is Joss-house, where the Chinese
go to worship. The pagoda is hun
dreds Of feet high, having steps from
the ground to the top on the inside
At every thirty feet porch extends
completely around the outside. Idols
of worship are placed on the inside
and inset in the wall for those who
come to worship. But at present
they do not use this pagoda for wor-
shipping. At the foot of the pagoda
is large idol god to kneel before as
you enter. We entered a gate and
dismounted our donkeys. Here we
made few snap shots with our ko-
daks and proceeded to enter the pa
CODA. Stopping along the wall as we
climbed the stairs to the top, we
wrote names on the walls as many
others before us had done. On reach
ing the top we walked out on the
porch and looked around over the
city and the adjoining country
This sight, looking over the city,
was exceedingly beautiful Such
scenery could only be seen in places
such as this is. Judging. from, what
| could see, 800 Chow" is about the
size of Fitzgerald in comparison, but
very much more closer together.
From our view of the city and ad-
joining country, we could see several
'old Joss-houses" and fields that ap-
peared to be under cultivation. There
appeared much spring vegetation, as
it was during the spring season that
we were there, putting forth its
green splendor. H.r.."
When we had made few distant
birds-eye view pictures of the city
and adjoining country, we descended
the stairs, descending faster than we
had ascended,
We mounted our steeds, after they
had been corralled by our attendants,
for they had been allowed TO roam
around while they were grazing. and
We were soon on our way. Just
where we did not know, but as we
had confidence in our guide we were
content.
Our course carried us through the
very heart of the city this time Here
we got splendid view of real Chi
nese merchant life-work shops, ped
dlers and beggars. (Of these we
saw many old and young, on the
streets begging). There was also
other kinds of foreign activity going
on.
AS we travelled (slow as it was) we
could notice that we were following
close to the waters edge-I believe
to be known as the $500 Chow
creek. which is a tributary of the
Whangpoo river. AS we went on our
way we encountered high bridges,
which had steps ascending and de-
scending and l supposed we would
have to dismount our steeds but with
accuracy they climbed the steps to
the summit and down again with very
little difficulty, so it seemed. So we
rode on, never dismounting only to
examine or explore some old scene.
etc.
Our next stop was at the "Yue Mai
Kwee Temple" Before entering this
temple We passed through an arched
gateway, which l presume was used
by sentinals centuries ago, after pass
ing the first gateway we were escort
ed up long driveway by crowds of
beggars and coolies trying to sell us
small curios.. We passed through the
second arched gateway, after dis
mounting and giving each of the at
tending coolies 20 cent mex a piece
to get his lunch with, "Chow Chow"
and thus entered the grounds of the
wonderful old constructed temple.
Walking up slight grade, for the
temple was on a hill. and partlv hv