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and finding gravel. All over the area we have visited, carts and trains have been loaded with stone, rock, sand, earth and compost. Sometimes the material is transported by people pulling carts. Oxen, mules, donkeys, camels, horses and vehicles that resemble small tractors are also used for transporting. In addition, horses and oxen work in the fields, drawing plows.
The standard hauling device is a two-wheeled cart, always seemingly of great antiquity, pulled by one to four animals. Three lead animals, perhaps mules, will be harnessed before a horse; often a horse and a mule will be harnessed together, one slightly in front of the other. Bicycles transformed into three-wheeled carts are common in the cities. Trains are used a great deal to transport coal, the principal source of heat, power and cooking fuel.
So far, I haven’t noticed inter city buses transporting people. Instead, the Chinese walk, bicycle or take trains, from what we can observe. There few native airplane passengers. , Sian immediate appeared more prosperous, cleaner and better developed than either Peking or Taiyuan. More of ,the people seem to live in newer structures. We see fewer heaps of building materials piled at every turn so surroundings appear more orderly, more liveable. When I look out my window, however, I see a courtyard full of junk, building materials and refuse that we have been blessed with because of renovations to a wing of the hotel.
We are staying at the People’s Hotel. We’re told it has one building for Chinese and a second for foreign visitors. 1 wonder if the renovation of one half of the Chinese section is being undertaken to accommodate the expected influx of even more foreign friends. Our section, if renovated, could house twice as many people.
Located in a warmer zone than Peking, Sian has a longer growing season and probably produces more food per acre than some other parts of north China. Wheat rather than rice is still the principal crop here.
Although China’s population has doubled since the revolution, one is not struck by the predominance of youth among people on the streets. Perhaps this is owing to a failure of observation on my part or to the conspicuousness of the elderly Chinese who often wear oldfashioned black clothes.
Yesterday at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a principal historic site, I saw a beautiful old woman, feet bound, wearing a black turban-style hat with a pin mounting a “pearl” in its front. I tried speaking to her, hoping that in the past she had learned some English but she could not understand me. Instead, two young boys, perhaps 12 or 13 years old, came shyly
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