From the truck gardens, orchards, and mines 40 to 60 miles outside of Peking, files of these shaggy beasts plod in with their loads of vegetables and fruit, coal and charcoal. They usually have no return load, but sometimes take back a pile of grass mats, clothing, or other city products. Occasionally a dusty caravan stalks in from Kalgan, just inside the Great Wall, with a cargo which has been relayed through the desert. Just above the first camel appears the hooded Peking cart, the type of conveyance used by the more well-to-do classes of the city and surrounding villages. HEADS OF OUTLAWS POSTED ON A BILLBOARD AT NANKING Photograph from Claude Meacham The Chinese consider that the worst form of death is to be beheaded, but if the condemned man faces his execution with contempt and lack of fear, he stands a somewhat better chance of appeasing the anger of his gods. The crime of which these men were convicted was theft. THE NEW WOMAN IN CHINA GOES TO SCHOOL She is as yet small in numbers, but increasing in influence, many of those trained in mission schools and abroad having found opportunities to use their knowledge and abilities in business, professional, and social life. JUNKS OF THE FISHING FLEET AT ABERDEEN ISLAND, BACK OF HONGKONG Photograph by Robert F. Fitch Nets and clothing are hung out to dry in the sun. The high poop in the stern of the junk and of many river craft enables the pilot to have a clear The Pagoda of Chiaolinsz, in the mountains opposite Chungking is more often frequented by picnickers than used for strictly religious purposes, its park furnishing a recreation outlet for the city's crowded population. Chungking is the treaty port for Szechwan Province (see "The Eden of the Flowery Republic," in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for November, 1920) and is 1,400 miles from the mouth of the Yangtze. |