As the day drew near it was obvious that it would not bring unmixed joy. Ominous rumors were coming from Sian in the northwest, where Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and his troops were now stationed.

Chiang refused to see any Communists in Sian until Mme Chiang arrived, according to X. Chou (En-lai) went to Mme Chiang and begged her to arrange an interview with Chiang. She finally agreed. Chou was very apologetic all the time he talked to Chiang.

After King Wu of Chou had defeated the Shang, the Chou kings continued to rule from ancestral territory, their capital Hao-ching being situated a short distance south-west of modern Sian.

On our car journey to the tomb of the First Emperor at Mount Li, some forty kilometres (twenty-five miles) east of Sian, the capital of Shensi province, we passed through Lintong, the administrative centre of an area of intensive agriculture.

The Chinese are not hijacking people.
So the attempt to take over an airliner flying from Sian to Shanghai and bring it to Taiwan gives indication of the increasing desperation of the mainland people.

As everybody rushed up to shake hands with him it occurred to me that April 24, 1970, the day of the shooting, would be remembered by the free Chinese in the same way an earlier generation of Chinese remembered December 24, 1936—the day the Gimo returned safely from Sian after his horrifying experience at the hands of the erstwhile Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and other commanders who had been unhappy with the Government's continuing military campaigns against Communist remnants in Northwest China.

Sian

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