Chengchow

On August the 18th in the afternoon we reached the city of Chengchow, situated but a few miles south of the Yellow River. I and my new boy alighted here with our luggage and our outfit for a new expedition.

The province’s industry is largely devoted to the processing of food and industrial crops. This includes cotton mills, notably at Chengchow, flour and oilseed mills. The processing centers, nearly all of which are also the province’s largest cities, are situated along the two main rail lines intersecting at Chengchow: the east-west Lunghai railroad and the Peking-Hankow line.

As the Fengtien army retreated, it destroyed the railway bridges, which so slowed down the Wuhan army that it did not reach Chengchow until June 1, by which time both Chengchow and Kaifeng were firmly in the hands of Feng Yü-hsiang. Feng had moved swiftly eastward, meeting little opposition from the northward-fleeing Fengtien troops, and had occupied Chengchow on May 30.

Recent travelers to mainland China have reported anti-Mao elements staged an armed robery of a bank in Chengchow in Honan province.... In a lengthy report from Hongkong, the Times’ Fox Butterfield said Chengchow authorities have reportedly begun a major drive to capture the robbers of the branch of the "People's Bank of China" who were reported to have escaped with some US$100,000, after killing a bank guard with a submachine gun.... Butterfield said the report from Chengchow was only one of the many accounts that the have brought back this summer from the troubled mainland China.