“ The people of Shan-si are great traders, and nearly all the commerce of southern Mongolia is in their hands. A railway connecting the capital with Pekin was opened in 1908. The only wagon road leading into and through Shan-si is the great highway from Peking to Si-gan Fu, which enters Shan-si west of Chêng-ting Fu, and leaves the province at Tung-kwan at the great bend of the Hwang-ho. Transport is chiefly on the backs of camels, mules and asses. ”

“ The iron is of great purity and easily fusible, while clay and sand for crucibles, moulds, &c., and a superior anthracite coal, lie ready to hand. The coal is of two kinds, bituminous and anthracite, the line of demarcation between the two being formed by the hills which are the continuation of the Ho-shan range, the fields of bituminous coal being west of these hills, and those of anthracite east. In the neighbourhood of P‛ing-ting Chow the extent of the coal-Field is incalculable ”

“ Salt is produced in the prefecture of P‛ing-yang in the south of the province, both from a salt lake and from the alluvial soil in the neighbourhood of the Fên-ho. Shan-si produces cereals, tobacco, cotton and sometimes rice, but in agricultural products the province is poor; the means of transport are rude and insufficient. ”