Page 240 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 240
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Xixiang. The Terrys and the Rowes were still with us, going on to Gansu Province, so we could all
travel together as far as Xi’an where we would part company. We divided into two parties to leave
Luoyang. The Terrys and the Rowes and Mildred and Ilma went first by train on the Monday morning,
and the rest of us waited till the Wednesday which happened to be New Year’s Day 1941.
That morning after a service in the Church, the whole congregation visited each home on the
compound to wish us a Happy New Year. They stood in the garden of the house while the occupants
of the house came out on to the front steps to receive them. One man made a New Year speech, we
all bowed to each other three times, then they were led in singing by a blind man with a braille hymn
book. We were told he was the son of the Empress Dowager’s gatekeeper, but when he was struck
by blindness, he was thrown out of the palace and rescued by missionaries.
On the train we all crowded into one sleeper and managed to pass a reasonable night. At dawn we
were all turned out as we approached the border of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. This was
considered to be the most dangerous part of the journey as the Japanese were continually firing
across the Huang He (Yellow River) from the places where they were entrenched on the other side.
We had to find our own transport across what was known as ‘the Gap’. This was as far as our train
would go, but other trains would be waiting on the other side of the Gap. I got breakfast for us all at an
inn while Percy went off to try and hire carts. When the carter picked up the shafts to begin pulling,
the front of the cart was pushed up and the back went down almost to road level, so if after piling their
luggage in, people wanted to get on themselves, it was better to get in from the back and to sit facing
the back with the upended floor of the cart as a backrest.
As we got nearer the main town on the Huang He all traffic was diverted into a narrow trench guarded
by soldiers. The old road was high enough above us to be seen from the other side of the river, but
the trench along which we were told to travel was sunk well below ground level. It was narrow and
crowded and full of dust. Carts, wheelbarrows, pedestrians, coolies and laden donkeys all struggled
to pass each other as they waded through the dust. Every few minutes soldiers had to untangle
wheels as collisions occurred. As we reached and passed through the bombed city, we realised how
much damage had been done. We passed whole streets where the buildings on both sides were
blown to pieces, but in spite of all the damage, the city was still in Chinese hands. This was the same
city of Tongguan which had been the end of the railway when Myrie, Bertha and I with Miss Haslam
had come to Shaanxi for the first time in 1932. How different it was now when most of the people had
fled into the surrounding country to escape the Jap bombs.
At Tongguan we were now about half way across the Gap. The road we were travelling on was the
only one left into west and north west China and it followed the course of the Huang He on the other
side of which the Japanese were firmly entrenched. Both sides were continually firing across the river
at each other. Our road had been cut some 12 to 15 feet deep down into the loess soil for protection
from the shooting, and travel along it was usually done at night.
On this day we went through in broad daylight and the only shooting was from the Chinese side and
we did not need to take cover even once. Sometimes we had glimpses of the river which at that time
of the year was ice bound, and the frozen waves and foam made a pretty picture.
SHAANXI AGAIN
It was 4 pm when we came to the end of the Gap and found a train waiting to take us on to Xi’an. As
Tongguan is the border city of Shaanxi, by the time we passed through it, we were actually in Shaanxi
Province - home at last. Not quite perhaps, as we still had a long way to go before we reached the
Return to Table of 240
Contents
Amy Moore
Xixiang. The Terrys and the Rowes were still with us, going on to Gansu Province, so we could all
travel together as far as Xi’an where we would part company. We divided into two parties to leave
Luoyang. The Terrys and the Rowes and Mildred and Ilma went first by train on the Monday morning,
and the rest of us waited till the Wednesday which happened to be New Year’s Day 1941.
That morning after a service in the Church, the whole congregation visited each home on the
compound to wish us a Happy New Year. They stood in the garden of the house while the occupants
of the house came out on to the front steps to receive them. One man made a New Year speech, we
all bowed to each other three times, then they were led in singing by a blind man with a braille hymn
book. We were told he was the son of the Empress Dowager’s gatekeeper, but when he was struck
by blindness, he was thrown out of the palace and rescued by missionaries.
On the train we all crowded into one sleeper and managed to pass a reasonable night. At dawn we
were all turned out as we approached the border of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. This was
considered to be the most dangerous part of the journey as the Japanese were continually firing
across the Huang He (Yellow River) from the places where they were entrenched on the other side.
We had to find our own transport across what was known as ‘the Gap’. This was as far as our train
would go, but other trains would be waiting on the other side of the Gap. I got breakfast for us all at an
inn while Percy went off to try and hire carts. When the carter picked up the shafts to begin pulling,
the front of the cart was pushed up and the back went down almost to road level, so if after piling their
luggage in, people wanted to get on themselves, it was better to get in from the back and to sit facing
the back with the upended floor of the cart as a backrest.
As we got nearer the main town on the Huang He all traffic was diverted into a narrow trench guarded
by soldiers. The old road was high enough above us to be seen from the other side of the river, but
the trench along which we were told to travel was sunk well below ground level. It was narrow and
crowded and full of dust. Carts, wheelbarrows, pedestrians, coolies and laden donkeys all struggled
to pass each other as they waded through the dust. Every few minutes soldiers had to untangle
wheels as collisions occurred. As we reached and passed through the bombed city, we realised how
much damage had been done. We passed whole streets where the buildings on both sides were
blown to pieces, but in spite of all the damage, the city was still in Chinese hands. This was the same
city of Tongguan which had been the end of the railway when Myrie, Bertha and I with Miss Haslam
had come to Shaanxi for the first time in 1932. How different it was now when most of the people had
fled into the surrounding country to escape the Jap bombs.
At Tongguan we were now about half way across the Gap. The road we were travelling on was the
only one left into west and north west China and it followed the course of the Huang He on the other
side of which the Japanese were firmly entrenched. Both sides were continually firing across the river
at each other. Our road had been cut some 12 to 15 feet deep down into the loess soil for protection
from the shooting, and travel along it was usually done at night.
On this day we went through in broad daylight and the only shooting was from the Chinese side and
we did not need to take cover even once. Sometimes we had glimpses of the river which at that time
of the year was ice bound, and the frozen waves and foam made a pretty picture.
SHAANXI AGAIN
It was 4 pm when we came to the end of the Gap and found a train waiting to take us on to Xi’an. As
Tongguan is the border city of Shaanxi, by the time we passed through it, we were actually in Shaanxi
Province - home at last. Not quite perhaps, as we still had a long way to go before we reached the
Return to Table of 240
Contents
