[CHAPTER XX. HARDEST PART OF THE JOURNEY.HWAN-LIEN-P'U]
[CHAPTER XXI. THE MOUNTAINS OF YÜN-NAN. SHAYUNG. OPIUM SMOKING.]
[FOURTH JOURNEY—THE MEKONG VALLEY TO TENGYUEH.]
[CHAPTER XXII. THE RIVER MEKONG]
[CHAPTER XXIII. THROUGH THE SALWEN VALLEY TO TENGYUEH]
[CHAPTER XXIV. THE LI-SU TRIBE OF THE SALWEN VALLEY]
[FIFTH JOURNEY—TENGYUEH (MOMIEN) TO BHAMO IN UPPER BURMA.]
[CHAPTER XXV. SHANS AND KACHINS]
[CHAPTER XXVI. END OF LONG JOURNEY. ARRIVAL IN BURMA]
To travel in China is easy. To walk across China, over roads acknowledgedly worse than are met with in any civilized country in the two hemispheres, and having accommodation unequalled for crudeness and insanitation, is not easy. In deciding to travel in China, I determined to cross overland from the head of the Yangtze Gorges to British Burma on foot; and, although the strain nearly cost me my life, no conveyance was used in any part of my journey other than at two points described in the course of the narrative. For several days during my travels I lay at the point of death. The arduousness of constant mountaineering—for such is ordinary travel in most parts of Western China—laid the foundation of a long illness, rendering it impossible for me to continue my walking, and as a consequence I resided in the interior of China during a period of convalescence of several months duration, at the end of which I continued my cross-country tramp. Subsequently I returned into Yün-nan from Burma, lived again in Tong-ch'uan-fu and Chao-t'ong-fu, and traveled in the wilds of the surrounding country. Whilst traveling I lived on Chinese food, and in the Miao country, where rice could not be got, subsisted for many days on maize only.