A Chinese Tea- Garden. 431 



of Chinese taste. Artificial canals and tanks filled with gi^een 

 sta"*nant water, redolent of miasmatic effluvia, amid whicli 

 the Lotos opens its lovely white blossoms, quantities of zig- 

 zag bridges with beautifully carved balustrades, islands with 

 artificially constructed rocks and grottoes, subterranean pas- 

 sages, flags of all shapes and sizes, bearing the most bombas- 

 tic inscriptions — such are the chief attractions of a Chinese 

 People's Garden, every large town boasting one such, erected 

 at the expense of the State, in which from early morning till 

 late in the evening a vast crowd of human beings is incessantly 

 surging to and fro, intent on pleasure, dissipation, or profit. 

 The rabble, however, have not access to every part of the 

 Tea-Garden, a certain portion being set apart for the recrea- 

 tion of the chief officials of the city (Tdu-Tai). This portion, 

 shut off by a lofty wall, is elegantly laid out, and is made at- 

 tractive with all manner of dwarf trees nursed with great care 

 and expense, besides the usiial grottoes, artificial hills and 

 precipices, pavilions, &c. Hither the head magistrate oc- 

 casionally resorts to pass the warmest hours of the day, and 

 dozes away undisturbed by the cares of his onerous responsi- 

 bilities. All the public gardens of China present almost the 

 identical features of the one we visited ; a park without arti- 

 ficial islands and wooden bridges, without canals (in lieu of 

 paths), without pools of stagnant water thickly covered 

 with the broad leaves of the Nelumhium^ would, in the eyes of 

 a Chinese, be deprived of its chief pleasm^e and its greatest 

 attraction. 



