64 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. III. 
is green tea. There are here a number of large dealers 
who buy this article from the farmers and priests, 
refine and sort it, form it into chops, and forward it to 
Shanghae or Canton, where it is sold to the foreign 
merchant. Seven or eight hundred chops are said to be 
sent out of this town annually. I observed also a great 
number of carpenters' shops for the manufacture of 
chests, a trade which of itself must employ a large 
number of men. In fact, this town and the surrounding 
populous district may be said to be supported by the 
foreign tea-trade. 
Nearly all the way from Yen-chow-foo the river was 
bounded by high hills on each side. Now, however, 
they seemed, as it were, to fall back, and left an 
extensive and beautiful valley, through the middle of 
which the river flowed. Nearly all this low land is 
under tea cultivation, the soil is rich and fertile, and 
the bushes consequently grow most luxuriantly. I had 
never before seen the tea-plant in such a flourishing 
condition, and this convinced me that soil had much 
to do with the superiority of the Hwuy-chow green 
teas. 
After spending about an hour in the town we inquired 
where we could hire a chair to take us onward about 
thirty le further, and were directed to an inn or tea- 
house, where chairs are let on hire. A circumstance 
happened in this inn which gave me some amusement 
at the time, and which I have often laughed at since. 
When we entered this house we found a great number 
of travellers of all ranks ; some were drinking tea, others 
smoking, and the reraainder stretched upon chairs or 
