350 APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. Chap. XXI. 
similar in all respects to the one I had stopped 
at the night before. The accommodation at these 
Chinese hotels is certainly not of a very high 
order, but the charges are moderate enough. 
Dinner and rooms for myself and servant 
amounted to the large sum of two hundred and 
fifty “cash,” or little more than one shilling of 
English money. It will be observed, therefore, 
that poor accommodation and high charges did 
not go hand in hand as they are sometimes said 
to do in more civilized countries. 
At grey dawn on the following morning we 
left our inn, and, with many other travellers, went 
rumbling along the old rough streets of Chan- 
chow-wan. When we reached the open country 
it was found to be less flat and of an undulating 
character, and more trees were also observed. 
That the country was higher was evident from 
the kinds of productions which were now met with 
in the fields. Large quantities of Indian corn, 
buckwheat, sweet potatoes, and soy-beans were 
here under cultivation. The gigantic egg-apples 
were very luxuriant here; and the oily grain 
grew to a height of five feet and seemed to be 
very productive. 
The mountains which had been seen, now and 
then, during the journey from Tien-tsin, appeared 
but a short distance to the north and westward, 
and the situation of the capital was pointed out by 
the drivers of our carts. By noon of this day the 
high walls and ramparts of Peking were distinctly 
