210 



TEA DISTKICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. XII. 



any other part of the range, and consequently has the 

 mountains rising high on each side of it. Just before 

 we arrived at the top the road was so steep that even 

 Chinese travellers get out of their chairs and walk, 

 a proceeding unusual with them on ordinary occa- 

 sions. From the foot of the range to the pass at 

 which we had now arrived the distance was twenty le, 

 or about five miles. 



This pass is a busy thoroughfare. It connects the 

 countries of Fokien with those of Kiang-see, and is 

 the highway, through the mountains, from the black- 

 tea districts to the central and northern provinces of 

 the Chinese empire. Long trains of coolies were met 

 or overtaken at every turning of the road. Those 

 going northward were laden with chests of tea, and 

 those going south carried lead and other products 

 for which there is a demand in the tea country. Tra- 

 vellers in chairs were also numerous, some going to, 

 and others returning from, the towns of Tsong-gan- 

 hien and Tsing-tsun, and the surrounding country 

 Whether I looked up towards the pass, or down on 

 the winding pathway by which I had come, a strange 

 and busy scene presented itself. However numerous 

 the coolies, or however good the road, I never ob- 

 served any two of them walking abreast, as people 

 do in other countries ; each one followed his neighbour, 

 and in the distance they resembled a colony of ants 

 on the move. 



At every quarter of a mile, or sometimes less, 

 there is a tea-shop, for the refreshment of those who 

 are toiling up or down the mountain. We frequently 



