Chinese Gentleman's Residence 141 



Quite half the road was composed of long ascending and 

 descending staircases, the hills here, as throughout China, 

 being remarkable for their steepness. After going for over 

 a mile through the city streets, we went out at the west gate, 

 and descended for about a hundred steps on to a road 

 which passed along the edge of the sandstone cliffs some 

 hundred and fifty feet above the river-bed, now two-thirds 

 dry, and having a fine stone parapet guarding the path on 

 the outside. Thence the road ascends by steps over a hill 

 about five hundred feet high — one mass of small, mostly 

 nameless, graves, with not a single tree or shrub to break 

 their monotony, but with a grand prospect of the rushing 

 river and the lofty hills rising from the opposite bank, all 

 green with the spring crops of opium, barley, and beans, 

 and picturesque, tree-embosomed villages and residences 

 scattered throughout. A marked feature of Eastern Szechuan 

 is the total absence both of plain and of barren hills, every 

 inch of land being either under cultivation or wooded — 

 except round the cities, where the monotonous cemeteries 

 occupy more ground than do the living inhabitants. After 

 travelling thus up and down three miles of grave-covered 

 hills, we ascended through a narrow wooded gap, and passed 

 under several elaborately carved stone triumphal arches, or 

 " Pai-fang," more numerous and handsome in Szechuan than 

 in any other province ; then through a small village on to 

 a high hill commanding a glorious prospect of river and 

 valley, upon which is built the " Tang," or family residence 

 of the Tungs, until at length we rested in the formally set- 

 out K'o-tang, or guest-hall, looking on to a handsome en- 

 closed courtyard filled with orange, camellia, and azalea 

 trees, growing in large pots placed on stone pedestals. I 

 was at once surrounded by the children of the family, which 

 consists of three brothers, having eighteen children amongst 



