Chap. VI. 



SHAOU-HING-FOO. 



Ill 



many inhabitants as Shanghae (2/0,000). The city 

 is walled and fortified, in the same manner as all other 

 places of this class. 



The canal passes round the city walls, and forms a 

 sort of moat. A branch of it goes straight through 

 the city itself. Being anxious to visit this place, I 

 directed my boatmen to go through the city, and we 

 entered it by an arch in the ramparts. 



The walls of Shaou-hing^foo are between three and 

 four miles in circumference, but, like most Chinese 

 cities, the space enclosed is not all built over. On 

 the sides of the canal the houses have a somewhat 

 mean and poor appearance, but they are better in 

 other parts of the town. A great trade seems to be 

 carried on in all the common necessaries of life ; and 

 as the town is as it were a half-way station between 

 Hang-chow and Ning-po, it is visited by a, great 

 number of travellers. A considerable quantity of 

 tea is grown on the hills not far from here. It is, 

 I believe, of a very fair quality, and second only to 

 that of Hwuy-chow. 



Amongst the sights here which the Chinese point 

 out, and are proud of, is a fine Buddhist temple 

 standing on a pretty little hill just outside the city 

 walls. I saw many ornamental gates in the town, 

 erected to the memory of virtuous women, who, 

 judging from the number of these structures, must 

 have been unusually numerous in the place 5 but its 

 chief fame results from the number of literary men 

 which it has produced, and who are scattered over the 

 whole of the empire. Wherever you meet them, it 



