Manchurian Rafts, Carts -- and Bicycles

A significant feature of Manchurian life in the 1920s and throughout the time Anna Bog served in Siuyen was the river raft. Such rafts were employed especially for the timber to be used in building construction. The logs would be gathered on the banks of small rivers and floated to a collection point where they waited for spring. Then, during springtime, the logs were bound onto very large rafts and floated down the Yalu River to Antung.

Yosano, a Japanese poetess who traveled up the Yalu from Antung on a steam launch in the spring of 1928, wrote, "It was still too early for the high season of floating rafts, though we were able to spot a few of them here and there . . . these rafts enveloped the clouds at the peaks on the river, each one rising far and above the next. Reflecting the green of reeds and willows, they glistened brightly, and as they leisurely sailed down the river they evoked the happy appearance of ridding themselves of modern machine civilization. From time to time, tattered clouds came and went and a light rain fell . . . "

Another significant feature of Machurian life was the mule- or horse-drawn cart, which was the common mode of transportation. The cartwheels were made of hard wood and the cart was quite sturdy but extremely uncomfortable.

In 1888, James wrote in The Long White Mountain, "The cart has no springs and no seat inside. Natives spread bedding on the floor and squat on that, but the shaking is simply agonizing." James solved the problem by putting a cushion on the shaft and sitting next to the driver -- something that was considered improper.

In the early 1900s, the Irish missionary physician, Isabel Mitchell, found the lack of springs so unbearable that she often walked alongside the cart, leaving her belongings to toss and shift about inside.

Anna Bog, however, had a different solution -- the bicycle. It was not at all unusual even at that time for a girl or woman to travel by bicycle in Anna Bog's native Denmark, but it was unheard of in Siuyen.

Anna Bog relates:

"As the years went on young well-trained Bible women were the result of the work we carried on here. As I was also the first woman in our town to ride a bicycle I made it a point to teach all these young Bible women to ride a bicycle, which caused quite a sensation in town. By and by we were 12 who rode bicycles together with the native pastor, all the [male] evangelists and the Bible colporteur."

Referenced sources:

Bog Madsen, "The Old Missionary's Brief Story", Nazareth Lutheran Messenger (Cedar Falls, Iowa; 1971) Courtesy of Casey Welch.

James, The Long White Mountain or a Journey in Manchuria [1888], First Greenwood Reprinting (New York, 1968)

O'Neill, Dr. Isabel Mitchell of Manchuria (London, 1917)

Yosano, Travels in Manchuria and Mongolia [1928], translated by Joshua A. Fogel (New York, 2001)

The image above, from Dr. Mitchell's biography, shows a typical Manchurian cart and driver, along with the tall dense kaoliang through which so many roads ran.