I have not been on the North China highways, but
have had considerable experience of them in Western China, Szech'wan and
Yuen-nan particularly, and have very little praise to lavish upon them.
Certain it is that the road to Sui-fu does not deserve the nice things
said about it by various travelers. The whole route from Chung-king to
Sui-fu, paved with flagstones varying in width from three to six or
seven feet--the only main road, of course--is creditably regular in some
places, whilst other portions, especially over the mountains, are
extremely bad and uneven. In some places, I could hardly get along at
all, and my boy would call out as he came along in his chair behind me--
"Master, I thinkee you makee catch two piecee men makee carry. This
b'long no proper road. P'raps you makee bad feet come."
And truly my feet were shamefully blistered.
One had to step from stone to stone with considerable agility. In places
bridges had fallen in, nobody had attempted to put them into a decent
state of repair--though this is never done in China--and one of the
features of every day was the wonderful fashion in which the mountain
ponies picked their way over the broken route; they are as sure-footed
as goats.
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