Market town

P'ing-tung was settled nearly 200 years ago and thus did not benefit from city planning under the Japanese administration (1895-1945). It is a typical market town with numerous light industries including rattan weaving, small machine shops and woodworking shops. A military airbase is located nearby. It serves as the seat of the P'ing-tung hsien (country) government.

Chan Sam had already received two receipts, one from the banking institution in Hong Kong to which he had sent his draft, and another from the broker in the market town of Shekki, which served several satellite villages including Chang Gar Bin. A courier had carried the draft from Hong Kong to Shekki.

Frank Fisher’s butcher’s shop had been in business, he liked to tell people, for more than 300 years. A while back, a signpainter was commissioned to advertise this fact on an outside wall, in case any strangers should pass through the market town of Dronfield in Derbyshire and feel compelled to stop and inspect a time capsule.

Over the past two centuries, the railway has become a force of economic and social transformation connecting towns and cities, carrying ideas and ambitions. One place to experience this change was Swindon. With the arrival of Brunel's Great Western Railway, Swindon began a remarkable transformation as what had been a modest market town quickly became a centre of industrial activity.