p. XXII. 
SHOPS. 
363 
south in junks, was very plentiful in Peking. I 
observed also a large white carrot, and the red 
turnip-radish, which is sent south every winter 
and made to flower in pots or flat saucers amongst 
pebbles and water at the time of the Chinese new 
year. Grapes and peaches were plentiful and fair 
in quality, but I did not meet with the latter weigh- 
ing two pounds each, as they are stated to do in 
the works of earlier travellers. Pears are perhaps 
the most abundant amongst all the autumnal fruits 
in Peking. They are exposed for sale in every 
direction, in shops, in stalls, on the pavement, as 
well as in the basket of the hawker. There were 
two or three kinds, and one of them was high- 
flavoured and melting. This is the first instance 
of a pear of this kind having been found in China, 
and it is a most welcome addition to the tables of 
the foreign residents of Peking. Curiously enough, 
this fruit, excellent though it is, is as yet unknown 
at Tien-tsin, a place only about 70 miles distant ! 
On the right-hand side of this main street in the 
Chinese city there are numerous cross streets, some 
of which contained articles of a different kind from 
those I have just been describing One named Loo- 
le-chang appeared to be the “ Paternoster Row ” 
of Peking. This street is nearly a mile in length, 
and almost every shop in it is a bookseller’s. There 
are, no doubt, an immense number of rare and 
curious books and maps in this place worthy of 
the inspection of our sinalogues. Here are also a 
number of shops having for sale carvings in jade- 
