"A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple." Crumbling walls are at long distances from the towns they used to guard; there are pastures and waste lands where there were streets of buildings; walls of houses have returned whence they came to the mother earth; others are roofless.

In the open country, far from habitation, the traveller comes across groups of bare walls with foundations still uncovered, and dismantled arches, and broken images in the long grass, that were formerly yamens and temples in the midst of thriving communities.

Yet there are signs of a renaissance; many new houses are being built along the main road; walls are being repaired, and bridges reconstructed.

When an exodus takes place from Szechuen to this province, there is little reason why Yunnan should not become one of the richest provinces in China.

It has every advantage of climate, great fertility of soil, and immense mineral resources hardly yet developed.
It needs population.