One summer morning in the early 1930's Hans Martin Nesse arrived at his vacation home in the foreign settlement atop Kikung Mountain. He looked tired and bedraggled, compared with his usual vigorous step and dapper appearance. His neighbors' inquiries were friendly and the tone solicitous but the story was slow in coming. Finally one inquirer asked why the laquered black cane that Nesse usually carried was less than one-half of its usual length.
It seems that the evening before Nesse had been in Hankow seeking tickets for a normal 4-5 hour railway trip from Hankow to the Sintien railroad station at the foot of Kikung. From there it was a 3-mile steep walk up 2500 feet to the Kikung summer resort area. Kikung had some 50 or more "villas" built by the missionaries for the summer vacation break from the heat of the lower country in the Honan and Hupeh area.
There were no passenger trains available for the trip from Hankow to Sintien but the Hankow railroad authorities agreed (perhaps in return for a little "guanshi") to allow Nesse to board a train going to Sintien. It turned out that the sole other occupants of the boxcar he boarded were a substantial herd of pigs headed for markets further north.
The freight car was sealed, the pigs were hungry and the only weapon the beleagered human had to fight the cannibalistic pigs was his black lacquered cane. After a long night of fending off the pigs the train arrived in Sintien, the door was opened and Nesse was freed from his night with the swine to start his hike up the mountain to the comfort of his Kikung home. On his next shopping opportunity he replaced his sturdy black laquered cane, with a new model of the "weapon" that had perhaps saved his life.