The Cabs of Chung-king 203 



owner has to pay, as in the case of the steamer wrecked off 

 the Cape during the last Zulu War. With us, it is true, the 

 insurance is supposed to protect the ship from losses such 

 as these; but there are many risks which no insurance 

 covers, and against these an individual is helpless, in the 

 face of the excepting clauses which exonerate the shipmaster 

 from any care of his goods, and to which he is bound to 

 subscribe ; butwhat only a Government can do at home is 

 in China effected by a guild. The other instance was the 

 determination of the Hankow Tea-guild, in the spring of 

 1883, to put a stop to the unfair system of weighing which 

 had long prevailed at that port. A notice to all the foreign 

 buyers was simply sent round by the chairman of the guild, 

 to the effect that henceforth exact weights would be insisted 

 upon, and a long prevailing injustice was forthwith 

 abolished. 



One fine day I hired one of the cabs of Chung-king, a 

 sedan-chair, stands of which are to be found at almost every 

 street comer, and set out for the west gate, to reach which 

 it was necessary for me to traverse nearly the whole breadth 

 of the city, about two miles, but seemingly much more, 

 owing to the constant ascents, many of the staircases being 

 cut out of the solid rock. The city is, in fact, divided into 

 the upper and lower city, the " Shang pan cheng," and the 

 " Hsia pan cheng," the former being built on a sandstone 

 bluff which rises about a hundred feet above the latter, and 

 is generally too steep to admit of any houses being built on 

 its precipitous sides. The business hongs and the principal 

 yamens are in the lower city ; the missionary establishments, 

 the pleasure gardens, and the foreign consulates in the 

 upper ; and from this upper city a succession of distant and 

 beautiful views is obtainable. The chair fare for any 

 distance within the walls is twenty-five cash, equal to one 



