20 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. II. 



stances I considered that it would be a most unsatis- 

 factory proceeding to procure plants and seeds from 

 the Ning-po district only, or to take it for granted 

 that they were the same as those in the great green- 

 tea country of Hwuy-chow. 



It was a very easy matter to get plants and seeds 

 from the tea countries near Ning-po. Foreigners are 

 allowed to visit the islands in the Chusan archi- 

 pelago, such as Chusan and Kin-tang, in both of 

 which the tea shrub is most abundant. They can 

 also go to the celebrated temple of Tein-tung, about 

 twenty miles inland, in the neighbourhood of which 

 tea is cultivated upon an extensive scale. 



But the Hwuy-chow district is upwards of 200 

 miles inland from either of the northern ports of 

 Shanghae or Ning-po. It is a sealed country to 

 Europeans. If we except the Jesuit missionaries, no 

 one has ever entered within the sacred precincts of 

 Hwuy-chow.* 



Having determined, if possible, to procure plants 

 and seeds from this celebrated country, there were 

 but two ways of proceeding in the business. Either 

 Chinese agents must be employed to go into the 

 country to procure them and bring them down, or I 

 must go there myself. At first sight the former way 

 seemed the only one possible — certainly it was the 

 easiest. But there were some very formidable objec- 

 tions to this course. Suppose I had engaged Chinese 

 agents for this purpose — and plenty would have 



* Since this was written I have been informed that the Rev. Mr. 

 Medhurst passed through some part of this district. 



