Leaving Wun Shih Tang, a short time brought us to the Old Highway we had left two days before. It is always much pleasanter to travel on the main roads than in the country lanes, which, though pretty, are very rough. In a mountainous district the fatigue of getting over them in a shendzle is rather trying. This evening we were fortunate enough to get into a comfortable inn just in time to secure the only apartment in it fit for a lady. We had scarcely taken possession when eight or ten travellers arrived—young Chinese gentlemen, who looked rather disappointed when they found there was no better accommodation for them than the common room, where their companions might not be so scrupulously clean as they would desire. However, they took their disappointment philosophically, particularly as they knew that possession was, at a Chinese inn, the whole ten points of the law. In an incredibly short time every corner of the inn-yard was full of carts, mules with pack-saddles loaded, and donkeys with immense panniers.

Next morning we passed through Whang Hien, a large and very busy city, which has always been considered unfriendly to foreigners. Its citizens have the reputation of not being at all particular on points of etiquette, of being rough in manners, but always successful as merchants.