Wanhsien

— On the 20th we reached Wanhsien, "The Myriad City," and as the most dangerous part of the river journey had been accomplished, our official lifeboat took its departure. After that the Hsien magistrate sent us Yamen soldiers. We changed them at every fresh prefecture. They lived on board, and spent their time squatting on the deck, often half asleep. When I think of Wanhsien I see myself being carried in a sedan-chair up interminable flights of slimy stone steps, through a fog-bound city, past miserable riverside hovels, clinging to sand and rock and banks of crumbling earth, along narrow streets, where all was damp, and dank, and dark, and dreary. A creek from the great river slices the town in half, and over it a beautiful bridge, one lofty stone arch crowned by a long, low building and climbed by two flights of stone steps, forms one of the most picturesque features of Wanhsien.