A walk through Chung-king 169 



however, in that families are admitted, and that the host 

 brings his own cook and provisions. 



Another morning early, I received a call from a gentleman 

 named Ting, who offered his services as cicerone in the 

 event of my desiring to " Shwah " in the neighbourhood. 

 This word Shwah, which means to play, is constantly in the 

 mouths of the festive Chung-kingites. " Hao shwa " — good 

 to play — is a recommendation that led me to visit many a 

 local celebrity. On the present occasion, our ten-o'clock 

 breakfast over, I set out with friend Ting to walk round the 

 city walls, a distance of about six miles. Starting from the 

 Tai-ping gate, along the wide-paved roadway to the summit 

 of the wall, we have on our left the crenellated battlements, 

 through which the swift-flowing river is seen two hundred 

 feet below; while on the right is an interminable line of 

 drug-dealers' stores, their fronts open to the road, and the 

 whole air redolent with the heavy fragrance of Chinese 

 medicines, a m'elange apparently of rhubarb, liquorice-root, 

 orris-root, lovage {Radix Levistici), and musk. Turning to 

 the right, and leaving the river to the left, we ascend the 

 broad, paved surface of the wall by long flights of steps 

 following its sinuosities as it ascends the crest of the ravine, 

 which on this side also drops perpendicularly from its 

 flanks. We here visited the Ti-shin Tang, a convivial 

 and benevolent institution, comprising a temple, a three- 

 storied pavilion, with green and yellow tiles covering its 

 steep, tent-shaped roof, a dead-house for the coffins of the 

 poor while awaiting burial, and the usual miniature gardens, 

 fish-ponds, and bridges, not omitting the rock caves, which 

 form a speciality in the pleasure-gardens of this city. 

 The view from the top of the pavilion, like that from every 

 eminence in the neighbourhood, afforded a fresh picture 

 of rock, river, and mountain, combined with wild-looking 



