CHAPTER IV 



CONCERNING CHINESE ROADS 



Travelling in China is unlike travelling in any 



other part of the globe. The country is so old, so 



tired, and things are so far from being what they 



appear, that at times one seems to have wandered 



to a new world, immeasurably more ancient than 



that which has been left. In any other country 



tents would be a necessity. In China they are an 



almost useless superfluity save in the mountains, 



for there is nowhere to pitch them. It should be 



one of the hiost thickly wooded countries in the 



world. You may travel for days and never see 



a tree, for they have all been cut down. Dirt at 



times is undoubtedly an aid to the picturesque. 



In China it seems but to accentuate the apotheosis 



of the commonplace. The people, despite their 



four thousand years of civilisation, are in many 



respects lower than the African savage (certainly 



the latter has a great sense of modesty, strange as 



it may seem), yet they cannot be treated as sucli. 



Everything goes by opposites. It is a land of 



negatives. Even the varnish dries in wet weather, 



a walking stick is invariably carried by the wrong 



end, and when a Chinaman wants to beckon he 



makes a gesture of dismissal ! All one's standards 



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