ABSTRACT
Fruits are ripening in the orchards round Peking, aromatic wild dates, rosy crab-apples, and gilded persimmons. The sweet-scented cassia (kuei hua) sheds its perfume over temple courtyards. In the fields, the kao liang, ready to be harvested, stands in serried ranks waving brown tassels high above a man's head. The orange maize, set out to dry on farm-house roofs, makes brilliant splashes of colour in villages, showing as little brown islands in a sea of crops. Sunflowers stand like sentinels in every garden, turning their solemn faces to the lord of light.
