James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reportsGilmour, James
Religion
James Gilmour of Mongolia: His diaries, letters, and reports
Gilmour, James
Gilmour, James, 1843-1891; Missions -- Mongolia
'The Mongols who visit Peking connect themselves with two great
centres. "The Outside Lodging," which is about a mile or more north
of the north wall of Peking, and is also called the "Halha
Lodging," because it is the great resort of the Northern Mongols,
and the "Inside Lodging," which is near the inside of the south
wall of the Manchu City of Peking, is situated close behind the
English Legation, and is also called the "Cold Lodging;" this name
being probably due to the fact that in the open space in this
"Inside Lodging" a good many Mongols camp out in their tents, in
place of hiring courts and rooms from the Chinese. These are the
two great _centres_ for Mongols in Peking. Many of them lodge in
the immediate neighbourhood, and even those who lodge in other
parts of the city frequent these two centres; so that, if any one
wants to know whether or not any individual Mongol has come to
Peking, he seeks him at one or other of these marts.
'In the winter of 1879-80 I set up a book-stall, with a Chinaman to
care for it, at the Outside Lodging, going myself, as a rule, every
second day. This winter I followed the example of the pedlars, and,
hanging two bags of books from my shoulders, hunted the Mongols
out, going not only to the trading places, but in and out among the
lanes where they lodged, visiting the Outside Lodging first and the
Inside Lodging later in the day. The number of Mongols outside the
city became latterly so small that it was not visited very often;
but during the Chinese eleventh and the first part of the twelfth
month, the number of Mongols to be met with at the Inside Lodging
was fair, and the number of books disposed of altogether, both
outside and inside the city, amounted to seven hundred and
fourteen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account