196 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XI. 
the most beautiful in the country, and, judging from the 
specimens which I had an opportunity of seeing, they 
certainly deserve their high character. 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 con- 
nected 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 
