The City of Foo-chow-foo and Long Bridge
THREE YEARS' WANDERINGS
IN
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
OF
CHINA.
London:
Spottiswoode and Shaw ,
New-street-Square.
WANDERINGS IN CHINA
A CHINESE MARRIAGE PROCESSION.
THREE YEARS' WANDERINGS
IN
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
OF
CHINA,
INCLUDING
A VISIT TO THE TEA, SILK, AND COTTON COUNTRIES:
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE
AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE OF THE CHINESE,
NEW PLANTS, ETC.
BY
ROBERT FORTUNE,
BOTANICAL COLLECTOR TO THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
With Illustrations.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1847.
CONTENTS.
Introduction.Erroneous Notions regarding China.No correct Sources of Information.Information gleaned from the Chinese not to be depended upon.Imaginative Powers of Authors on China.Peculiar Traits in the Character of the Chinese.Remarks on Agriculture and Soil.On Government and Laws.China has been retrograding for many Years.My own Experience.
First View of China and the Impressions produced.Contrasted with Java.Land at Hong-kong.Description of its Harbour.Town of Victoria.Chinese Towns, Stanley and Aberdeen.Description of the Island.Effects of Rains."Happy Valley" noticed.Chinese mode of "Stopping the Supplies."Views from the tops of Mountains.Climate.Botany of the Island.Few Animals indigenous.Unhealthiness of the Settlement.Its Causes.Character of the Chinese Population.Mixed Character of Foreigners.Remarks on the Settlement as a Place of Trade.
Leave Hong-kong for Amoy.Opium Station at Namoa.Liberty the English enjoy there.Chinese Population, and their Modes of living.A new Admiral makes new Laws.Cherry Brandy alters his Views.The Account which, as in Duty bound, he sends to Peking.Natural Tunnel through Chaple Island.Amoy.Remarks on its Trade.Travels in the Country amongst the People.The want of a Tail.The Hills.Island of Koo-lung-soo.Effects of War.Strange Rocks.Unhealthy Nature of the Island.Botany and Birds.Visit to one of the Chief Mandarins.His House and Grounds.
Leave Amoy.Gale in the Formosa Channel.Driven back to Chimoo.Chimoo Bay.Chinese Mode of paying Taxes.Character of the Natives.Journey to the Hills.Chimoo Pagoda.Interesting Scenery.Attacked and robbed.My Servant's Opinion of the State of Matters.Get back in safety to the Shore.Novel Mode of crossing the wet Sands.New Plants found.The Bay of Chinchew.
Land at Chusan.Description of the Island.Town of Tinghae.Agriculture.Staple Productions.Hemp Plants.Palm of which Ropes are madeTrefoil cultivated for Manure.Oil Plant.Flora.Hills covered with Azaleas, etc.The Tallow Tree.Green Tea Shrub.Bamboos and other Trees.Fruits.Yang Mai and Kum-quat.Inhabitants and Shops in Tinghae.English Names on Shop Doors.A new Language.Mode of classing Foreigners.Diseases of the Eye common.Salt-making.Method of preparing the Vegetable Tallow.Mode of hatching Eggs by artificial Heat.
First Visit to Ning-po.The Bridge of Boats.City and Pagoda.Medical Missionary.TemperatureChinese Mode of keeping themselves warm.Charcoal Stoves.My Lodgings.Chinese Gamblers.Description of Shops.Silks and Embroidery.Jade Stone.Cotton Printing.Rope making.Curiosity Shops and Contents"Furniture Street" and Furniture.Banking Establishment.No prospect of Foreign Trade.Temples, and Devotion of some of the People.Dwarfed Trees.Mode of Dwarfing explained.Mandarins' Gardens visited and described.View from Northern Hills.Agriculture.Native Flora of these Hills.Graves of the dead.Collins exposed.
Remarks on the Chinese Language.Ice-houses near Ning-po described.Their Simplicity and Utility.Novel Modes of Fishing.Fishing Cormorants met with.Their Actions described.Two pairs purchased.Account of their Food and Habits.
Shanghae visited at the end of 1843.My Lodgings.Prejudices and Superstitions of the Inhabitants.The City described.Shops and Merchandise.Food.An important Station for foreign Trade.The Exports of the Country; Teas and Silk easily brought to it.The adjacent Country described.Its CanalsAgriculture.Tombs of the Dead.Trees and Shrubs.Gardens and Nurseries.Difficulty of access to them.Cunning and Deceit of the Chinese.A Chinese Dinner.Theatricals.
Return to the South of China.The Canton River described.Forts at the Bocca Tigris.Productions of the Country.The "Sighing" Willow.Cultivation of the Nelumbium.Boats on the River.The Barber's Boat, &c.Splendour of the Flower Boats.Appearance of the River at Festivals.Order which prevails in this floating City. Houses built over Water.Chinese Dexterity in swimming and diving.Fa-tee Gardens.Their Plants.Old Aching gets a bad Name because his Seeds do not grow.He does not deserve it.Advice to the Buyers of Seeds.English and American Public Gardens at Canton.Chinese New Year.Attacked and robbed by the Chinese.A subsequent Attack made upon some Officers of the English Government.Their Letter to Her Majesty's Consul.
Visit to the Ning-po Green Tea District.Mountain travelling Chair.The Budhist Temple of Tein-tung.Scenery around the Temple.Traditional History communicated by the Priest.The Temple and its Idols.Invitation to Dinner with the Priests.First Trial with Chopsticks.Politeness! of the Chinese.Usual Dinner Company.My Bed.Devotions of the Priests.Wild Boar Hunt.Narrow Escape.Mode of frightening the Animals from the Bamboo Plantations.Mountain Scenery.Budhist Temple of Ah-yu-Wang.Poo-to-san, or the Worshipping Island.Its Temples and Idols.Bronze Gods.Trees and Shrubs.Gardens and pet Plants of the Priests.Sale of Gods or Josses.Offerings to the Gods in Shanghae and Ning-po.Processions in Honour of the Gods.Christian Missions.Medical Missionary Society.Roman Catholics.
The Tea-plant of China.The Species found in the Green and Black Tea DistrictsBest Situation for Tea Plantations.Remarks on their Management.Seasons, and Method, of gathering the Leaves.Manufacture of Tea.Cottages amongst the Tea Hills.Furnaces and Drying Pans.First Application of Heat.Rolling Process.Exposure of the Leaves to the Air.Second Heating.Length of Time required.Two kinds of Tea.Difference in the Manufacture of each.Selecting and packing Teas.Appearance and Colour of the Leaf.Peculiar Taste of Foreigners for Dyed Teas.Good Sense of the Chinese.Tea Merchants.Their Visits to the Tea Hills.Mode of buying from the small Growers.Black Tea District in Fokien.Teas divided into two Kinds.Peculiar Method of preparing each.Cause of their difference in Colour.Flowers used in scenting the finer Teas.Sir John Francis Davis's Remarks on different kinds of Teas sold at Canton.
Chusan Archipelago.Storm in a small Boat.Nearly upset.Kin-tang, or Silver Island.Its Inhabitants.Their Surprise on seeing a Foreigner.Yang-tse-kiang River.Its numerous Sand Banks.Our Schooner aground.Novel Method of getting Assistance from the Chinese.Village of Woo-sung.Opium Station.Remarks on the Opium Trade.Its Effects upon the Chinese.
Shanghae in 1844.Its Gardens and Plants.Start for the Hills in the Interior.Canals and Bridges.Adventure with my Pony.The "Tein-ching," or Blue Dye, found.Hills and their Vegetation described.The Surprise of the Natives on seeing a Foreigner.Their Curiosity, and Honesty!Plants sent to England.Another Journey into the Interior.Some large Northern Cities noticed.A midnight Visit from Thieves.The far-famed City of Soo-chow-foo visited.A Description of it.New Plants found.Central Position of Soo-chow as a Place of Trade.Baths for the Million.Return to Shanghae.
