ALCOCK WAS ONLY in Amoy temporarily, waiting until a house that was suitable for a married couple was available in Fuzhou. Then he would exchange positions with Lay, who was single. Lay had managed to secure a better site for the Consulate: on a hilltop reached by a fairly strenuous climb. It was a collection of temples, rented from their priests for a reasonable sum. Parkes was not impressed by them, thinking they were ‘small and inconvenient’ and ‘really afford very little room adapted to English tastes’. Surprisingly, for someone who lived four-fifths of his life in China and Japan, he never adopted their living styles and always insisted on Western comforts.

The fact that there was virtually no commercial activity in Fuzhou meant Parkes suffered financially because they received emoluments according to the amount of trade done at a port. There were, however, a few perks. He had to accompany Alcock to meet the local officials and he described the procession they made to Catharine:

Lay had adopted this last custom and Alcock continued it; unlike most of Lay's ideas, Parkes thought it was sensible ‘as it raises one in the ideas of the people’. Henrietta Alcock became a great attraction, being the first Western woman to enter the city. When she arrived, such crowds gathered to see her pass along in her chair that it was nearly impossible for them to move.

Fuzhou was not always so enthusiastic about foreigners, and there are many accounts of Westerners being pelted with stones and being pushed and shoved there.