Life and sport in China / Second Edition

CHINES

think about it at all, do so with minds adversely biassed by ignorance of the

he stock questions as to whether we eat with chopsticks, whether it is not always unbearably hot, and whether

42, resulting in the acquisition by us of the small, barren island of Hongkong, and the opening to foreign trade of five ports, including Canton and Shanghai, at all of which small plots of land some half a mile square were set apart for the exclusive residence of foreigners generally but of Englishmen in particular. Disputes

and have likewise been conceded, and our position in China to-day is founded on the accumulated result of these various agreements, which, above all things,

h Concessi

page 3

ut where they have been, although leased from the Chinese Government at nominal rents, they are to all intents and purposes little detached portions of the British

and foreign officials, and who holds the position of magistrate in relation to his own natio

d lighted, public seats placed in pleasant spots facing the water, trees planted, palatial houses built with gardens attached, a church constructed, clubs founded, billiard-tables and other insignia of West

r settlements, though far less numerous, but

now, worn out and dismantled, serve as floating warehouses, alongside which steamers come to discharge and load cargo. At other places vessels drop anchor in mid-stream, w

playing half mast be it a bundle of wood, a rice measure or a coal scoop, to

are two or three general stores and butchers' shops, run by either Chinese, Parsees or Japanese,

lub you call for say two sherries and one bamboo (half sherry, half vermouth) and the waiter brings them, together with a small chit-book in which he has already written down your order in pencil, and this, after

y by the church coolie for payment. This system, though very convenient, is apt to prove something of a trap, for signing a chit is so much easier, and the amount appears to be so much less than if paying in hard

nd sevenpence though formerly rated at five shillings, together with a subsidiary coinage of

e large enough to admit a thick string. It is usual to thread cash, first into bundles of one hundred, each bundle being about the size and shape of a sausage, and then for ten bundles to be strung together in pairs, so that

There are many kinds of taels, each of a different value according to the purity or touc

a corresponding value in dollars or taels, whatever the price of silver may happen to be. The same wit

f paper money, is so bewildering that European householders seldom bother about anything beyond dollars and cents, to

luminous and increasing trade; but others, belying their initial prosperity, have stagnated, and appear to be gradually slipping back to the Ch

ion of six or seven thousand, may be considered the metropolis of other treaty-ports in the northern half of the Empire, or, as t

een converted from a barren rock to a most lovely, thriving and important commercial town and nava

s and your interests are daily and directly concerned with either one or the other. From them come the daily newspapers, arriving, maybe, several days after date of issue, but still fresh reading for those in distant places. From them come the gun-boats which, besides protection, bring the welcome society of jovial naval men, and from them co

ut-port, while at times very monotonous, is frequently more interesting, for there, being less overshadowed by the pleasure of foreign society, you may come into closer touch with things Chinese, so that if the study of a people the m

of British enterprise adhere like barnacles to China's stolid bulk, dominating her vast trade with other countries, appearing as bright oases in the desert of Eastern heathendom and unfr

rom among his fellows for some particular superiority. Either he is smart in business, has health and physique to withstand the extremes of climate to which he may be subjected, is clever and has gai

your own content. A quarrelsome port provides an amusing study for a short time, but after that, especially during the depressing dampness of the rainy season when it is too wet to go out, life becomes very monotonous and irritating, for the space being so limited you are continually brought face to face with people who are on bad terms and who try to attach you to their side. Trivial jeal

swinging lazily over you, waiting for the master's return. This is done with the pleasurable knowledge that your friend would naturally instal himself in your house under like circumstances. Here is real charm. Think, too, of the outdoor life, of those lovely evenings when the air is soft and warm, the moon at full an

g the two great events

ng, increasing in intensity as the time shortens and decreasing slowly as the event recedes, the talk is purely of ponies, ponies, ponies-until the non-racing man droops and turns away, but without daring to utter one single word of protest against the prevailing epidemic of pony talk. Race lotteries at

eryone knows everyone else, the names of ponies entered have been household words for weeks, while their supposed merits are open secrets, the jockeys are personal friends, the weather is bright and warm, the ladies wear their smartest dresses, the course is kept and order maintained with the aid of bluejackets from the gun-boat in port, while her drum and fife band or nigge

exalted office, ranks high in the community, when suitable toasts are proposed and cordially honoured, followed by an adjourn

th attendant cavaliers trot down the reach by the river and gallop home acro

thing of its kind is more delightful than an afternoon with the spring

unity, meet frequently, be it on the club grounds or at private houses, when those who do not play come to watch

where grass will not grow sufficiently well to be of any p

ndance to field the balls, which they do remarkably wel

y the race-track, for which reason it is generally the case that they are too flat to afford much variety of play, although n

bicycle out, and part of the way over a fearful stone road through nauseous burial-grounds, but once there, a round or two

pt at Shanghai and Hongkong, where t

practicable to use light ships, wh

d is composed of the finest material possible, all the best men in Shanghai, as is ever the case elsewhere, going in for rowing at one time or another; but the rowing is not first-cla

too expensive. Also, part of the reason is due to beginners being seldom taken out and coached in tubs by expert senior men who have had the benefit of a professional or scientific training, but are put into a bad four and left to develop themselves as best they may. It

er, the rate of striking reduced by ten a minute and the crew badly pulled

rowing centres as is Shanghai, while the club is certainly one of the best to get into on arriving there, especially

bathe, stroll along the sands, or sit with the pilot on watch up by the old ruined fort, where you can see rays from the lighthouses flashing far, far across the waves, watch the lights of steamers as they pass beneath and listen to the cadenced throbbing of their screws. For those residing in Central China a sanatorium has lately sprung up near Kiukiang, at Kuling, a valley some 4,000

ht tweeds during the day and to sleep under a blanket at night. The mountain rambles are lovely, be it over the lofty peaks, through the trees and scrub in the

e. The view was magnificent, and on our return journey the setting sun flashed every imaginable hue on the mists rolling close above our head

y your luggage. For half the distance you follow ordinary country roads, but during the last few miles the path, though well constructed, is very steep in

sitors to the seaside during summer months, while others desiring greater chan

ten but lightly furnished on account of the summer heat or our own nomadic habits, and serv

oom cleared during dinner, so that with the help of a few more friends who come in

aturally regarded as the belle of the place. Presently a rival appeared, and with her tw

he carpet to be so old and so tightly nailed down that i

sideboard were smashed and ornaments fell from the walls, while dust from the carpet, which evidently had not been beaten for years, rose in such clouds that, coupled with the heat of a stifling night, we were

ing to the cosmopolitan nature of the community due care must be taken that the

some are for including all, irrespective of station, while others desire to draw the line after what they consider to be

ponsible for the supper, while another sees that the floor is properly waxed and arra

night arrives, when the guests assemble, frequently with strained

ranging say from fourteen to forty, are requested as a favo

are to dance, spend the evening between cards

their teens, makes itself comfortable for an hour or more, doing ample justice to the delicacies provided; indeed, after the ladies have all departed, bachelors and wayward husbands usually r

are very frequent and carried out on a scale com

for a game of billiards and a chat, and where the home and local papers, together with a fair number of books and magazines, are to be

f our limited world are discussed, and when one generally manages to give or to re

ooden balls down a raised track for twenty yards, to scatter nine pins at the bottom. There are two parallel tracks and

northern provinces, where the sea is frozen and all navigation stopped for six weeks or two months, gradually becomes milder in lower latitudes, until snow and frost are seldom experienced, and finally nev

he wall by a coolie stationed on the verandah outside. With the thermometer standing at ninety degrees in your bedroom you frame the mental query "Can I last through the day?" as you crawl on to the verandah in pyjamas wet through with perspiration, to watch the sun rise, hoping, but in vain, for a breath o

eyes dry and heavy in their sockets, with a throbbing in your ears, when for full-blooded p

d only in the darkness by a continual popping of corks and glowing cigar-tips, to catch what little air there m

e shade for nearly three weeks at a stretch, culminating in one hundred and seven,

ars, whisky and iced soda well within reach, we would take off our white jackets for greater coolness and sit perspiring in singlets round the table between guttering candles, when with bare heads and naked ar

n England, only shorter, there being generally some frost wit

ntertainment. The menu is, as a rule, excellent, and the impo

t exaggerated ideas of precedence, the company is seated, and a good dinner, a

m, in buying and exporting tea, silk and other products of the country, as well as in filling positions in Government services or any professional calling that agents, merchants, officials and the professional classes find employment, so that if in exile we surround ourselves with such lux