officer could live there, nor could any person whatever
beyond merchants and their employees and families remain over night.
No stone buildings except a church could be erected, and visits of
strangers were to be discouraged. Kiachta was thus restricted to the
business of a trading post, and the town of Troitskosavsk, two miles
away, was founded for the residence of the officials, outside traders,
and laborers. Most of the restrictions above mentioned exist no
longer, but the towns have not quite lost their old relations. There
is an excellent road from one to the other, and the carriages, carts,
and pedestrians constantly thronging it present a lively scene.

The police master tendered his equipage and offered to escort me in
making calls upon those I wished to know. Etiquette is no less rigid
in Siberian towns and cities than in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One
must make ceremonial visits as soon as possible after his arrival,
officials being first called upon in the order of rank and civilians
afterward. Officers making visits don their uniforms, with epaulettes
and side arms, and with all their decorations blazing on their
breasts. Civilians go in evening dress arranged with fastidious care.
The hours for calling are between eleven A.M. and three P.M. A
responsive call may be expected within two days, and must be made with
the utmost precision of costume.

Arrayed for the occasion I made eight or ten visits in Kiachta and
Troitskosavsk. The air was cold and the frost nipped rather severely
through my thin boots as we drove back from Kiachta. After an early
dinner we went to Maimaichin to visit the _sargootchay_, or Chinese
governor. We passed under a gateway surmounted with the double-headed
eagle, and were saluted by the Cossack guard as we left the borders of
the Russian empire. Outside the gateway we traversed the neutral
ground, two hundred yards wide, driving toward a screen or short wall
of brick work, on which a red globe was represented. We crossed a
narrow ditch and, passing behind the screen, entered a gateway into
Maimaichin, the most northern city of China.

CHAPTER XXVII.

From 1727 to 1860 nearly all the trade between Russia and China was
transacted at Kiachta and Maimaichin. The Russians built the one and
the Chinese the other, exclusively for commercial purposes. To this
day no Chinese women are allowed at Maimaichin. The merchants consider
themselves only sojourners, though the majority sp