Saturday, 3 May

Third day of the fourth lunar month

An air raid warning from 11.00 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Three groups of evening planes, over one hundred in number, flew over us. It was learnt afterwards that poor Chungking had been their objective. Lianglukou as well as the busy part of town has been bombed. One of my rare pleasures at Chungking is to prowl about the streets, randomly nosing around shop windows where our good tradesmen display their artistic taste when exhibiting their beautiful goods, or haply picking up an old book or used article, from an unwholesome, dirty store, if its price is not prohibitively high. Such pleasures will now be denied me, at least, till winter comes and the city is free of air raids.