In 1935 Hotchkis moved into a house in Xie He Hutong in the eastern district of Peking. The house had been rented since 1931 by Laurence Sickman, an American later to become the Director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, and his mother. When Sickman returned to the US in 1935, his mother wished to stay in Peking and invited Hotchkis to share the beautifully furnished traditional courtyard house. In the spring of 1935 Mary came to Peking to stay with Hotchkis and celebrate the publication by Vetch of their book on the Yungang caves. On 27 August they set out from Peking on the journey first suggested by Vetch, a self-styled pilgrimage to the sacred mountains. This they completed in two formidable journeys, over two months in the autumn of 1935 (to northern Heng Shan, Wutai Shan and Hua Shan) and four months in the spring and summer of 1936 (to Song Shan, Emei Shan, southern Heng Shan and Jiu Hua Shan). On the steep slopes of Hua Shan in Shanxi province, the 50 year old Hotchkis suffered heart strain, but after resting in Beijing through the winter of 1935-36 was fit to continue.