We left our Wen Miao on the top of the hills situated among innumerable graves rather late as we expected to get to Ta-li-Fu about noon; the distance is about 8 miles or about 25 li. The road is broad, paved and passes through fields of wheat and poppy, with graves beyond up the hill side. The poppy fields adjoining the graves a fitt setting, - one step from the opium to the grave. Many are resting there who, had they not been slaves to that awful habit, might today enjoy God’s sunshine, the beautiful air, the singing of the birds, the mountains and all that is grand in nature.
We met many people, the traffic is indeed heavy on this road; it might have been on account of the Ta-li fair, which is held once a year in April. The fair is on in earnest and in the afternoon I went out with two soldiers through the west gate. There were thousands of people, many Tibetans with medicines and old rubbish perfectly useless which they hoped to sell. Many temporary teashops and kitchens had been erected, where hundreds of people were fed with fly-bespeckled food, while pigs and dogs catched the drippings from the bowls out of which people sucked their food.
There was nothing sold of any interest only cheapgoods and junk.

Joseph F. Rock, Diaries, Archive of the Botanical Garden, Edinburgh