Chap. III. 
IMPORTANCE OF TUN-CHE. 
63 
was now very anxious to know to what part of the country 
we were bound. My Chinese servants, who had learned 
a little wit by experience, took good care to keep all 
these matters to themselves, their great object being 
to cut off all connection between their friends in the 
boat and those with whom we might have to associate 
afterwards. 
Our passage-money was now fully paid up, our lug- 
gage packed, and an arrangement made between my 
two men with regard to the station to which we were 
bound. When this was all arranged I left the coolie in 
charge of the luggage, took Wang on shore, and walked 
onwards to Tun-che, which we reached between three 
and four o'clock in the afternoon. It is a thriving, busy 
town, and forms as it were the port of Hwuy-chow-foo, 
from which it is distant about twenty miles. It is situ- 
ated in lat. 290 48' N., and in long. V 4' E. of Peking. 
All the large Hang-chow and Yen-chow boats are 
moored and loaded here, the river being too shallow to 
allow of their proceeding higher up, and hence it is a 
place of great trade. Nearly all the green teas which 
are sent down the river to Hang-chow-foo, and thence 
onward to Shanghae, are shipped at this place. The 
green teas destined for Canton are carried across a 
range of hills to the westward, where there is a river 
which flows in the direction of the Poyang lake. 
This part of the country is very populous. Nearly 
the whole way from the place where we had left our 
boat was covered with houses, forming a kind of suburb 
to Tun-che. This place itself is supposed to contain 
about 150,000 inhabitants. The great article of trade 
