ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE

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ACROSS ASIA ON A
BICYCLE

THE JOURNEY OF TWO AMERICAN STUDENTS
FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO PEKING

BY
THOMAS GASKELL ALLEN, Jr.
AND
WILLIAM LEWIS SACHTLEBEN

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1894

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Copyright, 1894, by
The Century Co.

All rights reserved.

THE DEVINNE PRESS.

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TO

THOSE AT HOME

WHOSE THOUGHTS AND
WISHES WERE EVER
WITH US IN OUR
WANDERINGS

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[pg xi]

PREFACE

This volume is made up of a series of sketches describing the most interesting part of a bicycle journey around the world,—our ride across Asia. We were actuated by no desire to make a “record” in bicycle travel, although we covered 15,044 miles on the wheel, the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world.

The day after we were graduated at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., we left for New York. Thence we sailed for Liverpool on June 23, 1890. Just three years afterward, lacking twenty days, we rolled into New York on our wheels, having “put a girdle round the earth.”

Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese empire from the west to Peking.

Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, [pg xii]proceeding along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April, and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived on Christmas night, 1892. Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York.

During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but certainly contributed much toward the object we sought—a close acquaintance with strange peoples.

During our travels we took more than two thousand five hundred photographs, selections from which are reproduced in the illustrations of this volume.

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CONTENTS

		PAGE
I.	Beyond the Bosporus	1
II.	The Ascent of Mount Ararat	43
III.	Through Persia to Samarkand	83
IV.	The Journey from Samarkand to Kuldja	115
V.	Over the Gobi Desert and through the Western Gate of the Great Wall	149
VI.	An Interview with the Prime Minister of China	207

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List of Illustrations

• THROUGH WESTERN CHINA IN LIGHT MARCHING ORDER. [Frontispiece]
• BICYCLE ROUTE OF Messrs. Allen & Sachtleben ACROSS ASIA. [p. 4 and 5]
• THE DONKEY BOYS INSPECT THE 'DEVIL'S CARRIAGE.' [p. 6]
• HELPING A TURK WHOSE HORSES RAN AWAY AT SIGHT OF OUR BICYCLES. [p. 8]
• AN ANGORA SHEPHERD. [p. 9]
• 1, THE ENGLISH CONSUL AT ANGORA FEEDING HIS PETS; 2, PASSING A CARAVAN OF CAMELS; 3, PLOWING IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 11]
• A CONTRAST. [p. 12]
• A TURKISH FLOUR-MILL. [p. 13]
• MILL IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 15]
• GIPSIES OF ASIA MINOR. [p. 16]
• SCENE AT A GREEK INN. [p. 19]
• EATING KAISERICHEN (EKMEK) OR BREAD. [p. 20]
• GRINDING WHEAT. [p. 21]
• A TURKISH (HAMAAL) OR CARRIER. [p. 22]
• TURKISH WOMEN GOING TO PRAYERS IN KAISARIEH. [p. 23]
• THE 'FLIRTING TOWER' IN SIVAS. [p. 25]
• HOUSE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN SIVAS. [p. 26]
• ARABS CONVERSING WITH A TURK. [p. 29]
• A KADI EXPOUNDING THE KORAN. [p. 30]
• EVENING HALT IN A VILLAGE. [p. 32]
• PRIMITIVE WEAVING. [p. 33]
• A FERRY IN ASIA MINOR. [p. 38]
• A VILLAGE SCENE. [p. 40]
• [Rural scene without caption.] [p. 42]
• WHERE THE 'ZAPTIEHS' WERE NOT A NUISANCE. [p. 50]
• READY FOR THE START. [p. 53]
• PARLEYING WITH THE KURDISH PARTY AT THE SPRING. [p. 56]
• THE KURDISH ENCAMPMENT. [p. 59]
• OUR GUARDS SIT DOWN TO DISCUSS THE SITUATION. [p. 65]
• HELPING THE DONKEYS OVER A SNOW-FIELD. [p. 67]
• LITTLE ARARAT COMES INTO VIEW. [p. 69]
• THE WALL INCLOSURE FOR OUR BIVOUAC AT ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET. [p. 72]
• NEARING THE HEAD OF THE GREAT CHASM. [p. 74]
• ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ARARAT—FIRING THE FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE. [p. 78]
• HARVEST SCENE NEAR KHOI. [p. 84]
• LEAVING KHOI. [p. 86]
• YARD OF CARAVANSARY AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
• LUMBER-YARD AT TABREEZ. [p. 88]
• THE CONVEYANCE OF A PERSIAN OFFICIAL TRAVELING IN DISGRACE TO TEHERAN AT THE CALL OF THE SHAH. [p. 91]
• A PERSIAN REPAIRING THE WHEELS OF HIS WAGON. [p. 94]
• LEAVING TEHERAN FOR MESHED. [p. 96]
• IN A PERSIAN GRAVEYARD. [p. 98]
• PILGRIMS IN THE CARAVANSARY. [p. 99]
• A PERSIAN WINE-PRESS. [p. 100]
• CASTLE STRONGHOLD AT LASGIRD. [p. 102]
• PILGRIM STONE HEAPS OVERLOOKING MESHED. [p. 104]
• RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR AT MESHED. [p. 105]
• FEMALE PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD TO MESHED. [p. 106]
• IN THE GARDEN OF THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE AT MESHED. [p. 107]
• WATCH-TOWER ON THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY. [p. 108]
• GIVING A 'SILENT PILGRIM' A ROLL TOWARD MESHED. [p. 109]
• AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL KUROPATKINE AT THE RACES NEAR ASKABAD. [p. 111]
• MOSQUE CONTAINING THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND. [p. 112]
• CARAVANSARY AT FAKIDAOUD. [p. 113]
• A MARKET-PLACE IN SAMARKAND, AND THE RUINS OF A COLLEGE. [p. 114]
• A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND. [p. 116]
• OUR FERRY OVER THE ZERAFSHAN. [p. 118]
• PALACE OF THE CZAR’S NEPHEW, TASHKEND. [p. 121]
• A SART RESCUING HIS CHILDREN FROM THE CAMERA OF THE 'FOREIGN DEVILS.' [p. 123]
• VIEW OF CHIMKEND FROM THE CITADEL. [p. 125]
• ON THE ROAD BETWEEN CHIMKEND AND VERNOYE. [p. 129]
• UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER. [p. 132]
• KIRGHIZ ERECTING KIBITKAS BY THE CHU RIVER. [p. 134]
• FANTASTIC RIDING AT THE SUMMER ENCAMPMENT OF THE COSSACKS. [p. 138]
• STROLLING MUSICIANS. [p. 141]
• THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT KULDJA. [p. 143]
• THE CHINESE MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA. [p. 145]
• TWO CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES IN THE YARD OF OUR KULDJA INN. [p. 146]
• A MORNING PROMENADE ON THE WALLS OF KULDJA. [p. 148]
• THE FORMER MILITARY COMMANDER OF KULDJA AND HIS FAMILY. [p. 151]
• VIEW OF A STREET IN KULDJA FROM THE WESTERN GATE. [p. 153]
• OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND AND MR. SACHTLEBEN LOADED WITH ENOUGH CHINESE 'CASH' TO PAY FOR A MEAL AT A KULDJA RESTAURANT. [p. 155]
• A STREET IN THE TARANTCHI QUARTER OF KULDJA. [p. 158]
• PRACTISING OUR CHINESE ON A KULDJA CULPRIT. [p. 160]
• THE HEAD OF A BRIGAND EXPOSED ON THE HIGHWAY. [p. 161]
• A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF KULDJA. [p. 163]
• SPLITTING POPPY-HEADS TO START THE OPIUM JUICE. [p. 165]
• THE CHIEF OF THE CUSTOM-HOUSE GIVES A LESSON IN OPIUM SMOKING. [p. 167]
• RIDING BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF MANAS. [p. 168]
• MONUMENT TO A PRIEST AT URUMTSI. [p. 170]
• A BANK IN URUMTSI. [p. 171]
• A MAID OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 173]
• STYLISH CART OF A CHINESE MANDARIN. [p. 174]
• A CHINESE PEDDLER FROM BARKUL. [p. 176]
• CHINESE GRAVES ON THE ROAD TO HAMI. [p. 178]
• SCENE IN A TOWN OF WESTERN CHINA. [p. 179]
• A LESSON IN CHINESE. [p. 180]
• A TRAIL IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 182]
• IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 183]
• STATION OF SEB-BOO-TCHAN. [p. 185]
• A ROCKY PASS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE GOBI. [p. 187]
• A WASTE OF BLACK SAND IN THE GOBI. [p. 188]
• A ROAD MARK IN THE GOBI DESERT. [p. 189]
• WITHIN THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL. [p. 191]
• RIDING BY THE GREAT WALL ON THE ROAD TO SU-CHOU. [p. 193]
• A TYPICAL RECEPTION IN A CHINESE TOWN. [p. 196]
• A CHINAMAN’S WHEELBARROW. [p. 199]
• MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER OF A BRIDGE. [p. 201]
• TWO PAGODAS AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 203]
• MISSIONARIES AT LAN-CHOU-FOO. [p. 205]
• LI-HUNG-CHANG. [p. 206]
• OPIUM-SMOKERS IN A STREET OF TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 209]
• MISSIONARIES AT TAI-YUEN-FOO. [p. 210]
• ENTERING TONG-QUAN BY THE WEST GATE. [p. 211]
• MONUMENTS NEAR ONE-SHE-CHIEN. [p. 212]
• MONUMENT NEAR CHANG-SHIN-DIEN. [p. 215]
• ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 217]
• A CHINAMAN SCULLING ON THE PEI-HO. [p. 218]
• SALT HEAPS AT THE GOVERNMENT WORKS AT TONG-KU. [p. 220]
• WINDMILLS AT TONG-KU FOR RAISING SALT WATER. [p. 221]
• FURNACE FOR BURNING WASTE PAPER BEARING WRITTEN CHARACTERS. [p. 225]
• MR. LIANG, EDUCATED IN THE UNITED STATES, NOW IN THE SHIPPING BUSINESS. [p. 228]
• A CHINESE SEEDING-DRILL. [p. 230]
• A CHINESE BRIDE. [p. 233]