Cuar. XIII] CENTRAL POSITION OF SOO-CHOW. 261 
Their dresses are of the richest material, made in a 
style at once graceful and elegant; and the only 
faults I could find with them were their small 
deformed feet, and the mode they have of painting 
or whitening their faces with a kind of powder 
made for this purpose. But what seemed faults in 
my eyes are beauties in those of a Chinaman, and 
hence the prevalence of these customs. 
Soo-chow-foo seems to be the great emporium of 
the central provinces of China, for which it is 
peculiarly well fitted by its situation. The trade 
of Ning-po, Hang-chow, Shanghae, and many 
other towns on the south: Ching-kiang-foo, 
Nanking, and even Peking itself on the north, all 
centres here, and all these places are connected 
either by the Grand Canal, or by the hundreds of 
canals of lesser note, which ramify over all this 
part of the empire. Shanghae, from its favourable 
position as regards Soo-chow, will doubtless become 
one day a place of vast importance, in a commercial 
point of view, both as regards Europe and America. 
I remained for several days in this city, and its 
neighbourhood, when, having done all that was 
possible under the circumstances, I set out on my 
way back to Shanghae. When I arrived, I was 
obliged to go on shore in my Chinese dress, as the 
English one had been stolen by my midnight 
visitor. The disguise, however, was so complete, 
that I was not recognised by a single individual, 
although i walked up the street where I was well 
known, and even my friend Mr. Mackenzie, with 
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