Chengtu

In the west affairs were equally gloomy, Ili and Turkestan were de facto lost to Chinese rule; in Thibet difficulties had arisen with the neighbouring state of Nepaul; to attempt to mend matters Sir Jung Bahadoor, the Rajah, sent an embassy to the court of Peking; with characteristic obstinacy and folly this embassy was turned back on arriving at 成都 Chengtu in Sz’-chuen.

THE report of the Commission sent by our American government to investigate the riots at Chengtu, the Province of Sze-chuen, China, has not yet been made public,[…]Commander Merrell, who has hitherto shared some of the antipathy naturally entertained in the United States Navy toward missionary workers, informed me to-day that the trip to Chengtu had caused him to modify his views materially.

The Red Basin is famous for the large number of pailou, or memorial arches, which line these roads. Automobile roads radiating from Chengtu and Chungking are revolutionizing passenger service, but railroads are urgently needed.

I write from Chengtu, capital of Szechwan province. For four and a half years our family has made its home in this city upon the green, well watered Chengtu plain with its rich variety of fresh vegetables and golden fruits.

The Li were absentee landlords. They lived in Chengtu, the capital of Szechwan, and hardly ever saw their land, which was cultivated by tenants and administered by a manager who brought the rent to his employers in the city.

The fall of the Chinese mainland marked a tragic page in the history of the Chinese people. I remember that when Father left the military academy at Chengtu for Taiwan on December 10, 1949, he bade me stand beside him. We stood together and sang loud the national anthem in front of a portrait of our National Founding Father and our national flag.

Bessac's account of his trek in Life magazine stressed the high adventure of the journey, with no ,mention of the political dimensions of the mission or of Mackiernan being a CIA agent. Bessac wrote that he was in western Asia "to study Mongolian anthropology," claiming that he headed to Inner Mongolia from Chengtu after recovering from eye surgery because this was the region he considered "least likely to be bothered by the Communists" (Bessac 1950:131).