TO KALGAN AND THE MONGOLIAN GRASSLAND

September 15th-28th

PEOPLE who visit Peking nearly all think it JL incumbent upon them to go to the Nankow Pass, and see what they call the Great Wall. It is a tradition that still survives, though now, thanks to the railway, the Great Wall is much more easily and quickly visited from Shan-hai-kwan, not to speak of the wall there being really the old Great Wall, whilst that seen by people, who go no further than the Nankow Pass, is a comparatively quite recent addition of the fourteenth century. Yet people continue to go, and, if they combine with it a sight of the Ming tombs, ought to be well recompensed for their pains. The most interesting expedition from Peking would, however, be to the Ming tombs, then right through the Nankow Pass and on to Kalgan, from thence by the Mongolian grassland to Lama Miao, and so back by Jehol, as we call the old summer resort of ancient emperors, possibly even combining with that, on the return journey, a visit to the Eastern tombs, the favourite burying-place of the present dynasty.

Though a more convenient method of returning from Jehol might be by the river Luan, that looks so beautiful as it comes out of a deep gorge, just before passing under the line from Tientsin to Newchwang, and which has already accompanied the traveller all the way from Lama Miao, or Dolonor, as it is called on our maps. But of what use is it to give counsels of perfection to poor mortals who must ever cut their cloth according to their means, i.e. y regulate their travels according to their time? " Le mieux est Tennemi du bien." We set aside all idea of what might have been if we had not lingered so long in our garden, and decided that a peep into the Mongolian grassland would suffice for us, not knowing then that it was Paradise.

翻译如下：

前往张家口和蒙古草原

9月15日至28日

几乎所有访问北京的人都认为有必要去南口关，去看看他们所称的长城。这一传统依然存在，尽管现在由于铁路的便利，从山海关参观长城要容易得多、速度更快，更不用说那里的长城确实是古老的长城，而那些只到南口关的人看到的长城则是14世纪相对较新的加建部分。然而，人们仍然继续前往，如果他们将此行与明陵的参观结合起来，也应该会觉得不虚此行。不过，从北京出发最有趣的旅行应该是先参观明陵，然后穿过南口关前往张家口，再从那里通过蒙古草原到达喇嘛庙，再经由热河返回。我们称热河为古代皇帝的避暑胜地，可能在返回途中甚至还可以顺道参观目前王朝最喜爱的埋葬地——东陵。

不过，从热河返回的更方便方法可能是沿着滦河前行，这条河在穿过深邃的峡谷后，从天津到牛庄的铁路线下方流出，在到达喇嘛庙或多伦诺尔（地图上的称呼）之前就一直伴随着旅行者。但对于那些必须量力而行的凡人来说，给出完美的建议又有何用呢？他们的旅行必然是要根据时间来安排的。“最好是善的敌人。” 我们放弃了如果不在花园里逗留太久可以完成的所有设想，决定只在蒙古草原上匆匆一瞥，不知道那其实是天堂。

TO KALGAN 135

All our efforts to hire ponies having proved fruitless, we started with two mule litters, hired from the Tung Ho stables, where the Empress Dowager got hers in August, 1900. Many people speak as if her having had to escape in a mule litter through the night it was really in the early morning of August 1 5th and being dressed in some common sort of gown, had atoned for all the misdeeds she may or may not have committed. We thought of this sometimes when inclined to complain of our litters. But really, though one of the less comfortable modes of travel, I could hardly flatter myself I was thereby atoning for even my unrecognised sins. The first movement, it is true, upset me rather more than the pitching of a vessel, which it somewhat resembles ; but we learnt to accommodate ourselves to it, and by degrees found we could read comfortably, though every effort to write proved a failure. The Chinese usage is to pay beforehand merely for the journey to Kalgan, and then separately for the return journey, thus saving payment for the litters while detained at Kalgan. Curiously enough, in this way we got the same litters to bring us back. This was never quite explained, but I think must have been because we paid nine taels each for each journey, whilst Chinese pay seven or eight. Our litters, muleteers, and mules all proved excellent, whilst our servant had hired for himself the best donkey I ever saw. We all rode him in turns. He was never sick nor sorry, keeping up a pleasant, quick amble, quite fit to take care of himself with the bridle loose upon his neck, or to canter of his own accord on the Mongolian plateau. The country we traversed till we reached Kalgan was plentifully supplied with fruit; grapes and peaches were specially delicious, fresh eggs difficult to get, and mutton seemingly the only meat. For the most part the traveller has to take provisions and all conveniences with him, as is usual in China, but in no other part of China have I seen such clean, nice inns. In Mongolia the only fuel we saw was argols, and they are hard to manage for the unaccustomed, requiring constant use of the bellows and some care, but being put up in a chieftain's house we saw nothing of this difficulty. Making direct for the Mongolian grassland, always a little afraid of not having enough time for it, we spent our first night at Kwanshih, near which to the west there is a very striking craggy mountain. All round the comparatively flat landscape rose hills ; it had been impossible to cure myself of the impression that between them and us must be a deep valley, which would become visible as we approached nearer, and it was still with this idea that I walked on to an out-jutting headland flat at the top, and covered with large, rather special-looking gravemounds, shut in by tall trees planted in a solemn oblong. There was no valley to be seen, for there is no valley, and this at last convincing me of the different character of the landscape from that to which I was accustomed, perhaps gave an added sense of loneliness. Anyway the scene produced a very exceptional and not easily-to-be-forgotten impression ; the solitude, the wild character of the craggy mountain on which we looked, and the absolute want of all knowledge of whose were those graves, all tending to enhance the romance and mystery of the scene.

我们尝试雇用马匹的努力全都失败了，最后只好从东和马厩租了两辆骡轿，这也是慈禧太后在1900年8月逃离时乘坐的轿子。许多人谈论她在8月15日夜里乘坐骡轿逃跑——实际上是在清晨，并穿着普通的衣服时，仿佛这为她所犯下的所有罪行赎罪了，无论这些罪行是否真实存在。当我们对自己的轿子感到不满时，有时也会想到这些。但实际上，尽管这是不太舒适的旅行方式之一，我却无法自我安慰，认为这能赎回我那些未曾察觉的罪过。刚开始的行进，确实比船只的颠簸更让我不适，有些类似的晃动；但我们渐渐适应了它，并逐渐发现我们可以舒适地阅读，尽管尝试写字的所有努力都失败了。按照中国的习俗，我们预先支付了前往张家口的费用，而返程费用则另行支付，这样就避免了在张家口停留期间为轿子支付费用。有趣的是，我们返程时还是乘坐了同样的轿子。这点从未完全解释清楚，但我认为可能是因为我们为每趟行程支付了九两，而中国人支付的是七两或八两。我们的轿子、骡夫和骡子都表现得很好，而我们的仆人则为自己租了一头我见过的最好的驴子。我们轮流骑着它。它从未生病或表现不佳，总是保持着愉快、快速的小跑，能够自己掌握缰绳的松紧，或是在蒙古高原上自发地小跑。我们穿越的地方到达张家口之前，水果供应充足，葡萄和桃子尤其美味，新鲜鸡蛋则较难获得，羊肉似乎是唯一的肉类。大多数情况下，旅行者必须像在中国其他地方一样自带食物和所有的便利物品，但在中国的其他地方，我从未见过如此干净、舒适的客栈。在蒙古，我们见到的唯一燃料是牛粪饼，对于不熟悉的人来说，它们很难使用，需要不断使用风箱并且需要一些技巧，但由于我们住在一个酋长的房子里，因此没有遇到这个难题。直接前往蒙古草原时，我们总是有些担心时间不够，因此第一晚我们住在关市，附近西边有一座非常醒目的嶙峋山峰。周围的相对平坦的景观上耸立着山丘；我始终无法摆脱一种印象，即我们和山丘之间应该有一个深谷，随着我们靠近，这个谷地会显现出来。带着这个想法，我走上了一块突出的山岬，山顶平坦，被高大的树木围成一个庄严的长方形区域，里面覆盖着一些大型的、看起来特别的坟墓堆。然而，我没看到任何峡谷，因为那里根本没有峡谷。这终于让我意识到这片景观的特性与我惯常所见的不同，也许因此我更加感到孤独。无论如何，这个场景给人留下了非常特殊且难以忘怀的印象；孤寂、我们眼前嶙峋山峰的野性，以及对这些坟墓主人身份的完全无知，所有这一切都增强了这个场景的浪漫与神秘感。

We started early next morning and lunched at Nankow village. Till then we had been travelling along the same Peking plain as the day before, partly cultivated with millet, buckwheat, and, I think, China grass, partly bits of grassland covered with stones innumerable. The air over the grassland was delightful, and I was again haunted by the delusion that we were exalted on a plateau which we must come off some time or other into a valley, that still I thought must lie between us and the engirdling hills. But no ! they rose up like a barrier all round straight out of the plain. At Nankow village a very pretty, shining, yellow-roofed pagoda with yellow and green animals outside on the roof tempted me to explore, and we found a pretty little mosque with beautiful Arabic characters on panels inside. There seemed to be mosques in all the places we stopped at, and the inns were always kept by Mahommedans, but I do not know if this was the case with those we did not stop at. A short five miles further we reached the oftenphotographed Nankow gateway across the pass, but the pictures do not at all do justice to the triple gateway, the twofold wall, the strange, mediaeval carvings, both inside and out, of innumerable Buddhas, and also, as it would seem, of mediaeval warriors. Nor does one see in a picture the great peculiarity of this archway that it is five-sided underneath, and with apparently nothing but plaster to prevent the various small bricks, of which it is composed, from falling out of the middle flat bit, which yet, though ancient, remains intact. The scene is anyway extraordinarily picturesque, even if it is not true, as we are now told, that Genghis Khan and his Mongols came conquering down this way, and although this wall is certainly not the Great Wall, but built under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, and therefore decidedly more showy, Prejevalsky tells us, " The Nankow Pass is at times seventy to eighty feet wide, shut in by stupendous blocks of granite, porphyry, grey marble, and silicious slate. Along the crest of the range is built the second so-called inner Great Wall, far greater and more massively built than that of Kalgan, which stretches from the heart of Manchuria to far beyond the upper course of the Yellow River, a distance of about 2, 500 miles. At Kalgan even it is twenty-one feet high and twenty-eight feet wide at the foundations. It is composed of great slabs of granite, with brick battlements on the summit ; the loftiest points are crowned with watch towers. Within it are three other walls about two miles apart, all probably connected with the main barrier. These walls block the main barrier pass of Nankow with double gates, but the last of all in the direction of Peking has triple gates. Here may be noticed two old cannon, said to have been cast for the Chinese by the Jesuits." And again : " The wall winds over the crest of the dividing range, crossing the valleys at right angles and blocking them with fortifications. At such places alone could this barrier be of any advantage for defensive purposes. The mountains, inaccessible by nature, are nevertheless crowned by a wall as formidable as that which bars the valleys. That by the Nankow gateway is, of course, 'the last in the direction of Peking,' the first the excursionist sees, and, as a rule, that with which he is satisfied, but the inner wall cresting the pass is evidently much more ancient, and said to have been built under the Emperor Wu-ting, of the Wei dynasty, 542 A.D., and by 50,000 workmen, though the Archimandrite Hyacinth says the same wall was rebuilt fifty-four years afterwards on the same ground. This possibly accounts for its being twofold, and one line apparently much better built than the other."

我们第二天一早出发，中午在南口村用餐。在那之前，我们一直在沿着与前一天相同的北京平原旅行，这片平原部分被种植了谷子、荞麦和中国草（我认为是这样），部分则是遍布无数石块的草地。草地上的空气非常宜人，我又一次陷入了错觉，觉得我们正处在一片高原上，迟早会进入一个山谷，我依然认为这个山谷应该位于我们与环绕山丘之间的某处。但是，并没有！那些山丘如同一道屏障，从平原上直接升起。在南口村，一座非常漂亮、光亮的黄顶宝塔吸引了我去探险，塔顶上还装饰着黄绿色的动物雕像，我们发现了一座漂亮的小清真寺，里面的墙板上有美丽的阿拉伯文字。在我们停留的每个地方似乎都有清真寺，而客栈也总是由穆斯林经营，但我不清楚我们没有停留的那些地方是否也是如此。

再往前五英里，我们到达了经常被摄影师拍摄的南口关口，但照片远不能完全展现这座三重关口的魅力。这座关口有两重城墙，内外都有奇异的中世纪雕刻，雕刻的内容包括无数的佛像，还有中世纪战士的形象。照片中也看不到这座拱门的最大特色之一：它的底部是五边形的，而且看似只有一层灰泥将各种小砖块固定在一起，防止它们从中间的平坦部分掉落，但尽管已经古老，这些砖块仍然保持完好。无论如何，这个场景都非常迷人，即使现在我们被告知成吉思汗和他的蒙古军队并没有沿这条路征服下来，而且这段城墙显然不是万里长城，而是在明朝14世纪修建的，因此更显华丽。普热瓦尔斯基告诉我们，“南口关口的宽度有时为七十到八十英尺，被巨大的花岗岩、斑岩、灰色大理石和硅质板岩封闭。在山脊的顶部建有所谓的第二道内长城，远比张家口的那道更加庞大和坚固。这道城墙从满洲腹地延伸到远远超出黄河上游的地方，总长约2500英里。在张家口，长城的高度为21英尺，地基宽度为28英尺。它由巨大的花岗岩板构成，顶部有砖砌的垛口；最高点上还建有瞭望塔。在长城内部，还有三道约两英里间隔的城墙，可能都与主屏障相连。这些城墙封堵了南口的主要屏障关口，并设有双重城门，但朝向北京的最后一道城墙设有三重城门。在这里，可以看到两门旧炮，据说是耶稣会士为中国人铸造的。”他还说：“长城沿着分水岭的脊线蜿蜒而上，穿过山谷并以堡垒封堵它们。在这样的地方，这道屏障才能在防御中发挥作用。尽管这些山脉本身已经难以攀登，但山顶上依然建有一道如同阻挡山谷的长城般坚固的墙壁。南口关口的长城当然是‘朝向北京的最后一道’，这是游览者看到的第一道，也是他们通常认为已经足够满意的，但内墙沿着关口的山脊显然更为古老，据说是公元542年魏朝武定皇帝下令修建的，动用了五万名工人，而大主教海辛思则表示同样的墙在五十四年后在同一地点重建。这可能解释了为什么它有两道城墙，而且一条线似乎比另一条建得更好。”