Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/47

of repair was subsequently pursued. Thus, the road from Tientsin to Peking, each an immense city, is nothing more than a broad path sometimes covered with mud to a depth of three feet and sometimes abounding in ruts and holes of almost incredible dimensions, whereas the main route in Szchuan Province is paved with slabs of stone five feet wide, which is the entire width of the fair-way, and is carried over the mountains that encircle the Province by a series of steps hewn in the rocks barely spacious enough for one sedan-chair to pass. On the other hand, a stone causeway of noble dimensions leads from Peking to Tung-chou, and in Shantung the roads sometimes present the aspect of avenues. Everywhere, however, the dominant feature is neglect. On the causeways the stone slabs are wanting in some spots, and in others have been sunk or tilted so that the surface of the road suggests petrified billows. In the streets of Peking holes have been allowed to grow to the dimensions of military shelter pits, and when these are filled with mud—a common occurrence—instances are on record of draught-mules stumbling into them and being drowned. At Shasi on the Yangtse River there is a stone embankment in three tiers with a fine bund on the top, a work of the days of China's greatness; but at present the arch-crossed flights of stone steps that lead up the embankment at intervals are so deeply covered with mud that the citizens find it safer to use paths climbing