It
is noted for the manufacture of images of Buddha from Shan-si iron.
(Consular Reports, p. 10; Erdmann, 331.)
[The main road turns due west at Cheng-ting fu, and enters Shan-si through
what is known among Chinese travellers as the Ku-kwan, Customs'
Barrier. - H.C.]
Between Cheng-ting fu and T'ai-yuan fu the traveller first crosses a high
and rugged range of mountains, and then ascends by narrow defiles to the
plateau of Shan-si. But of these features Polo's excessive condensation
takes no notice.
The traveller who quits the great plain of Chihli [which terminates at
Fu-ch'eng-i, a small market-town, two days from Pao-ting. - H.C.] for "the
kingdom of Taianfu," i.e. Northern Shan-si, enters a tract in which
predominates that very remarkable formation called by the Chinese
Hwang-tu and to which the German name Loess has been attached. With this
formation are bound up the distinguishing characters of Northern Interior
China, not merely in scenery but in agricultural products, dwellings, and
means of transport. This Loess is a brownish-yellow loam, highly porous,
spreading over low and high ground alike, smoothing over irregularities
of surface, and often more than 1000 feet in thickness.
