But the absolute differences of conditions
existing are quite as remarkable. From Chung-king to Sui-fu one breathed
an air of progress--after one had made allowance for the antagonistic
circumstances under which China lives--a manifest desire on every hand
for things foreign, and a most lively and intelligent interest in what
the foreigner could bring. In many parts of Yuen-nan, again, conditions
were completely reversed; and one finding himself in Yuen-nan, after
having lived for some time at a port in the east of the Empire, would
assuredly find himself surrounded by everything antagonistic to that to
which he has become accustomed, and the people would seem of a different
race. This may be due to the differences of climate--climate, indeed, is
ultimately the first and the last word in the East; it is the arbiter,
the builder, the disintegrator of everything. A leading writer on
Eastern affairs says that the "climate is the explanation of all this
history of Asia, and the peoples of the East can only be understood and
accounted for by the measuring of the heat of the sun's rays. In China,
with climate and weather charts in your hands, you may travel from the
Red River on the Yuen-nan frontier to the great Sungari in lusty
Manchuria, and be able to understand and account for everything.
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