170 NOTES Of TBAVEL IB" CHINA. 



nor esplanades, but one gloomy plain of dark and decaying roofs fills 

 up the space between the river and the mountains. A few forts not 

 meriting a description, a couple of pagodas not particularly elegant, 

 an occasional group of trees, and official poles standing before the 

 residences of a mandarain, and which an author has likened to 

 " dismantled gallows," can be seen from an eminence, but their 

 variety gives but little relief to the sombreness of the picture. 



The foreign merchants, (by which I mean the British, French and 

 American,) were confined to a few acres of ground on the river side, 

 which were tastefully laid out and filled with different species of trees 

 and plants. 



About one hundred yards from the water were the Hongs, or 

 Factories in which they reside and transact their business. These 

 buildings were three stories high, and presented a long frontage 

 filling up latitudinally the prescribed limits. They extended some 

 distance in depth, it being customary in China to build houses of 

 this description in rear of each other, all being accessible by means of 

 an arched passage which runs underneath them. Between each 

 building, in the rear, was an area of a few feet square. These houses 

 appeared as if built beneath a common roof; it was impossible 

 to avoid the unwilling gaze of a neighbour into the opposite 

 bed room, kitchen or dining room, unless by closing the blinds 

 which would have impeded the free circulation of the air, and 

 have made the matter worse. 



The hospitality which strangers receive from foreigners through- 

 out China is proverbial, as all travellers in the country can testify : 

 while in addition to this their acts of generosity to strangers in 

 distress lead one to believe that the old-fashioned virtues of charity 

 and benevolence are not yet extinct, but exist in patriarchial 

 simplicity wherever they are most needed. 



In the foreign gardens was a neat Episcopalian Church, a Club 

 House, and a collection of boats equal to those in any other part of 

 the world. The city proper is surrounded by a high wall, within 

 which no foreigner is admitted. The gates are thrown open during 

 the day, and through the archway, a glimpse can be had of the pro- 

 hibited city. After once passing through a Chinese street there are 

 no inducements to go a second time. There are two in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the factories occupied by the foreigners, from which 

 strangers usually make their purchases. These are about ten feet 

 in width, and are always crowded with men and women, some having 

 boxes of tea suspended from either end of a bamboo staff which rests 

 on the shoulders ; others packages of paper similarly carried. 



