314 CITY OF TIEN-TSIN. Chap. XIX. 
than forego the excitement which attends the risk- 
ing it. 
The walled city of Tien-tsin is a very poor-look- 
ing place. It has four gates, east, west, north, and 
south, and is about a mile and a quarter in length 
from east to west, and less than half a mile wide from 
north to south. Its walls and ramparts are gene- 
rally in a most ruinous condition. The streets are 
usually paved, or rather they have been originally 
paved, with large stone slabs, but these too are 
now in bad condition. The pavement is broken 
up in many places, and large holes are seen every- 
where, which, in wet weather, get filled with 
water. The shops are poor, and apparently con- 
tain only the simple necessaries of life. • As in 
other Chinese cities, the high authorities live and 
have their public offices within the walls of the 
city, but the wealth, activity, and life of Tien-tsin 
are all in its suburbs. 
Chinese towns, as a rule, are not remarkable for 
cleanliness; on the contrary, they are generally 
famous for filth and foul smells. But in all my 
travels in the Chinese empire, or elsewhere, I 
never came upon a place so disgustingly dirty as 
Tien-tsin. The pavement of many of the streets 
is thickly covered with mud which seems to have 
been accumulating for ages. This is well enough 
in dry weather, but when it rains it is almost im- 
possible to walk along the streets without getting 
over the shoes in mud, and perchance tumbling 
headlong into one of the holes already mentioned. 
