Fuzhou

“ Sui-Fu was a large city at the junction of the Min and the Chin-sha rivers, which unite to form the Yang-tse-kiang. It was a busy place, and contained a considerable European community, whose houses stood in wooded grounds on the river bank. After spending a few days in the English consul's bungalow, the two friends started a little chummery near the river--a sitting-room, and a bedroom apiece, with a compound and outbuildings for their native servants. In addition to a cook and a man-of-all-work, they had each a personal servant. ”

“ Peking stands at the end of the great seacoast plain as you go up from Tientsin by railway or by boat. Beyond rise the Hsi Shan (Western Mountains) and the Mongolian plateau and mountains. It is the most expansive city in the republic, because it is more built up than spacious Nanking; a court, a legation, a trading, an art, an educational, a health center in autumn, a military, but not a manufacturing center as yet, though it will be. It is more Mongolian and Manchu, perhaps, than pure Han Chinese. ”

“ When the news came of Fu Chien's end, he declared himself an independent ruler, of the "Later Liang" dynasty (386-403) . Strictly speaking, this was simply a trading State, like the city-states of Turkestan: its basis was the transit traffic that brought it prosperity. For commerce brought good profit to the small states that lay right across the caravan route, whereas it was of doubtful benefit, as we know, to agrarian China as a whole, because the luxury goods which it supplied to the court were paid for out of the production of the general population. ”

“ The first division comprises the holders of high office in Peking; the second the governors of the eighteen provinces in which China proper is comprehended, and of the three provinces of the district loosely termed Manchuria, which stretches north-eastward of Peking. In the third class we may place the officials resident in those vast regions known as Inner and Outer Mongolia, in the country between Mongolia and Thibet, and lastly In Thibet itself. Every Manchu mandarin of high standing has military as well as civil rank. ”

“ Being an open port, this town, in common, I believe, with the other semi-Westernised ports in China, bears a very bad character as regards purity of morals. The advent of the foreigner has done nothing but harm in this respect. Wonderful and horrible though it may seem, the vice-mart exists in the ports mainly in connection with the foreigners, who appear to have shown the way to the Chinese. There is a street in Shanghai, the Foochow Road, where terrible scandals occur almost openly ”

“ In Foochow, as in other cities of China, the narrow alleys are literally choked with every form of industrial obstruction. Countless workmen plant themselves in the tiny passageways with the pigs, children, and dogs, and women bring their quilts to spread upon the stones. There is a common saying that the Chinese do little which is not at some time done on the street.
The foreign residents, including consuls of all nationalities, missionaries, and merchants, live well out of the city on a hilltop. ”

“ The native city is a walled enclosure, somewhat larger than that at Shanghai, and with nearly double its population ; but as for the foreign trade of the place, it has never been very important, in spite of the proximity of Hang-chow-fu, the capital of the province, which the great Venetian, when he passed through it, described as an Eastern Paradise.
Among the chief attractions of Ningpo are the Fukien guildhall, the " Tien-how-kung, " as it is called, or '* Temple of the Queen of Heaven"; one of the finest buildings of the kind in China. ”

“ Neumann, Professor of Oriental Languages and History at Munich, after a residence of a couple of years at Canton, published a translation of the narrative of Hoei-Shin with comments upon it. [202] A few of the most striking passages of the account given by this Buddhist missionary are as follows: “Fusang is about 20,000 Chinese li in an easterly direction from Tahan and east of the Middle Kingdom. [203] Many Fusang trees grow there whose leaves resemble the Dryanda cordifolia; the sprouts, on the contrary, resemble those of the bamboo tree, and are eaten by the inhabitants of the land. ”

“ Caldwell, who speaks "Foochow" perfectly, could not understand a word of the "southern mandarin" which is the language of that region, and near Futsing, where a colony of natives from Amoy have settled, the dialect is unintelligible to one who knows only "Foochow."
Travel in Fukien is an unceasing trial, for transport is entirely by coolies who carry from eighty to one hundred pounds. The men are paid by distance or weight; therefore, when coolies finally have been obtained there is the inevitable wrangling over loads so that from one to two hours are consumed before the party can start. ”

“ Ta-Li Fu and Yang-pei T’ing form its eastern and northern boundary respectively, and it is from it that the Ta-ping valley draws its requirements. The country east of Ta-li Fu is supplied from Yün-nan Fu, the capital of the province, which again draws both from Canton by the West River, and from Shanghai by the Yang-tsze. The difficulties of the Bhamo route are so great that no great improvement is possible, and no great development of trade can result. Yün-nan has been described as a rich province. ”

“ THE treaty of Nanking was concluded in 1842; but even before that time Shanghai was a place of considerable trading importance. By the treaty referred to, the port was thrown open to foreign trade, and its advantageous position led to so rapid an increase of its commerce, that it soon became the chief emporium of China. Shanghai city stands on the east of the province of Kiangsu, and on the verge of a vast productive plain, which, prior to the accession of the Chow dynasty, formed part of the old province of Yang-Chow, itself one of the nine provinces under the administration of the famous Yu. ”

“ The desire of the community to carry out an extravagant and not very practicable scheme for a new park or exercise-course that should enclose nearly the whole arable ground and villages within our limits afforded the next opportunity, and the arrogant humour and superstitions of the Fukein clans supplied the ready instruments for inflicting a second blow upon the rights and security of the foreigner at Shanghai connected with the occupation of land. ”

“ The native walled city of Shanghai stands to the south of the foreign settlement, and is separated from it by the French concession ground, and by a canal which here sweeps round and forms with Soo-chow Creek and the river a water boundary for the entire English ground. The latter, on its western side, supports a Chinese population of over 50,000 souls; but inside the walls of the Chinese city, in an area measuring little over a mile long by three-fourths of a mile in breadth, and in a densely crowded suburb on the water's edge close by, about 130,000 inhabitants reside. ”

“ The foreign concession is surrounded by streams and ditch from the rest, and is virtually an island isolated. The river bounds one side, and brooks the others; one crossed bridges and ditches, and finds change and decay! There is an Anglo-Chinese settlement, but all the foreign side is clean, well lighted by lamps and electricity, with fine houses, warehouses, and public buildings. Shanghai is no longer China in the settlements.
In the American settlement my friend Eagan, whom I suspected was an American bred, had indicated the hotel on the Broadway. ”

“ Standing on the walls of Peking, a city of the plain, you look down upon twelve square miles of grey-tiled roofs, the roofs of one-storied houses hidden in the summertime by a forest of trees, but in the heart of the city are high buildings that stand out not only by reason of their height but because the roofs of golden-brown tiles, imperial yellow, gleam and glow in the sunlight. This is the Forbidden City where has dwelt for hundreds of years the Emperor of China, often he must have been the only man in it, and always it was closed to all save the immediate following of the Son of Heaven. ”

“ Europeans who have experienced the biting winds of Peking, the damp heat of Canton, or the gray skies of Chengtu find in the bright days and cool breezes of Yunnan some mitigation of their exile to this remote corner of the empire. The city itself is not very attractive in spite of its many trees, for it seems a network of narrow lanes, only broken here and there by a temple enclosure or a stretch of waste land, the whole shut in by sound thirty-foot high walls ”

“ At times the doctor and I continued to treat the bandages with rum, for although Mai Lo was not often present upon these occasions we feared he might have spies set to watch us, and so dared not neglect our functions.
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The mandarin lived, during these days of our stay in Shanghai, in the native city, and said he was busy perfecting arrangements for our long trip to the Province of Kwang-Kai-Nong.
Shanghai consists of a native city and an European city, besides four conceded districts occupied by Americans, French, English and Germans. ”

“ THE COUNTRY OF FUSANG. The theory that western America was originally peopled by the Chinese, or at least that the greater part of the New World civilization may be attributed to this people, is founded mainly on a passage in the work of the Chinese historian Li yan tcheou, who lived at the commencement of the seventh century of our era. In this passage it is stated that a Chinese expedition discovered a country lying twenty thousand li to the east of Tahan, which was called Fusang. ”

“ The Chinese have a great respect for the insane, thinking the spirits who possess them are sacred. They gave him a good dinner, and he returned unharmed to the British Legation. The Chinese 132are working harder to take the Fu than any other point. It holds nearly three thousand native Christians, and it is these poor wretches whom the Chinese would first love to murder. Then, too, if they got the Fu, they could so easily mount guns on its wall and fire down on us. ”

“ Yün-nan Fu is a walled city, over three miles in circuit, 6420 feet above the level of the sea and at a short distance from the north-eastern shore of the lake, with which it was formerly connected by a canal. The southern half of the square is thickly populated, while the northern half consists of swamp and vegetable gardens. The city was shorn of its ancient glory by the outbreak of the Mohammedan rebellion, which raged for years round it and in the northern part of the province. The old and extensive suburbs are gradually being rebuilt from their ruins. ”

“ For human beings, nü2 ing5 is used for woman, in the most genteel society; but the common terms for man and woman are derived from a singular circumstance in the history of the ancient kingdom of U5-chü, of which Fuh Chau was the capital. The kingdom of U5-chü was subjugated by the Tong5dynasty, and tradition says, that all the men were destroyed, and that the women were compelled to become the wives of their captors, (called Tong5 men,) who immediately occupied the kingdom of U5-chü, which, thereafter, became a part of the great Chinese empire. ”

“ The infantry proved extremely valuable, especially in the fighting in the plains of north China and in laying siege to fortified towns. Fu Chien thus very quickly achieved military predominance over the neighbouring states. As we have seen already, he annexed the "Earlier Yen" realm of the proto-Mongols (370) , but he also annihilated the Chinese "Earlier Liang" realm (376) and in the same year the small Turkish Toba realm. This made him supreme over all north China and stronger than any alien ruler before him. He had in his possession both the ancient capitals, Ch'ang-an and Loyang ”

“ The year 1868 was marked by serious anti-foreign outbreaks in widely distant provinces of the empire. At Yangchow, a wealthy city on the Grand Canal, twelve miles from the left bank of the Yangtze river, a favourite resort for retired officials, rich salt merchants, and gentry, the Inland missionaries under the orders of Mr Hudson Taylor established themselves. In no locality in China could they have been less welcome, for there they met their natural enemies in the greatest force. ”

“ He is a man of great integrity and broad talent. He should take charge of Xuzhou. I would like to retire to a life of leisure, so that I can restore my health." Xuande said, "Kong Wenju compelled me to come to the aid of Xuzhou out of a sense of justice. If I were to now occupy it for no good reason, the world will judge me to be without any sense of justice." Mi Zhu said, "The house of Han is now in a state of decline, and the world is turned upside down. If you desire to make a name for yourself, now is the time. Xuzhou is full of wealth and there are hundreds of thousands households. ”

“ The rich cultivation of the lowland is in sharp contrast with the surrounding hills, bare and barren save where the presence of a temple has preserved the forest.
Yunnan-fu, with a population of some eighty thousand, seems a fairly prosperous town. Copper is found on the neighbouring hills, and the metal-work of the place is famous, although by law all copper mined must be sent to Peking. But the importance of the city depends mainly upon its trade. ”