There is a large photograph gallery, or archive, in the American consulate in Hongkong, which contains the portrait of every Chinaman who has been to America and returned to China.
A good botanical garden is located just above the business center of the city, and parks, good public buildings, a museum, libraries, churches and schools, and other public features are well represented.
Mail from Europe will be longer traveling to Hongkong than to any other port in the world, and vice versa. From centers north of Hongkong mail is sent by way of Siberia, and the larger amount of mail even from this city is, perhaps, carried over the Siberian railway. Were one, however, to mail a letter in London, Paris, or Berlin to Hongkong, by way of the Suez Canal—the main route from Europe to the Far East—it would not reach the Chinese port earlier than six weeks' time from date of mailing. From 40 days to six weeks is the regular time required for passenger ships to travel from Europe to Hongkong.
Hotel expenses were cheaper than at Singapore, being only two dollars a day.
CHAPTER II
A trip was made up the West River to Canton, a stretch of water in which vessels are sometimes sacked by Chinese pirates. A half-dozen or more of these daring Mongols will board a boat at the starting place as passengers did, and when an opportunity offers they will overpower the officers, when the ship will be at their mercy. Not long ago an effective weapon called "stinkpot" was in use. These bad smelling crocks were thrown about the decks of a boat, bursting, and the nauseating odor from them would partly suffocate any who happened to be near. The pirates well knew where to burst them to the best advantage. To prevent successful piratical attacks to river craft, English gunboats have been stationed at certain places of this large river. Hongkong is the port for Canton and the great population in Southern China, and no one who has not taken a sail up that river can form a correct idea of the large number of people who crowd on the boats, particularly in the third-class section.
When the boat reaches Canton, and before it is alongside the wharf, Chinese, emerging from rowboats, will be seen scaling the sides of the vessel from stem to stern with the agility of monkeys. In a very short time they throw their legs across the deck rails, every one of them on the alert to earn a few cents by carrying a valise, directing a passenger to his ricksha or sedan chair, or presenting to the visitors business cards of silk, damascene, ivory, or other merchants. Guides are also much in evidence, and if there is any city in the world where a guide is needed it is surely Canton, China.
Soon we are in a sedan chair—the only means, except afoot, of getting about the city—with a Chinaman at each end, the poles resting on their shoulders. The guide was in front, and in a short time we had passed through an entrance in the city wall. All was different then, and it is doubtful if a stranger could find his way out after having gone not more than two city squares in Canton. The streets are from three to fifteen feet wide, and boxes, tubs, tanks and pails, used by storekeepers to show their goods, encroach even on this limited space. Were one to go to a large ant-hill on a hot day, when the insects are thick and moving about quickly, the mound would afford a fair illustration of Canton within the walls. The city is one great human ant-hill. We had been through the teeming streets of the native quarters of some Indian cities, and concluded there could not be more density of population anywhere, but that opinion soon changed after stepping inside the walls of the metropolis of Southern China. Any one who has visited Hongkong and thinks he has seen a typical Chinese city would do well to pay a visit to Canton.
"Hey-ho, ho-hey, yay-he-ho, ho-ye-hay," sounds something like what a Chinaman sings or chants to make known his coming in the human-packed streets. Bear in mind, there is neither horse, ox, mule, nor ricksha puller traversing the streets—only men and women, with loads carried on split bamboo poles. They all have a song, grunt or yawn to give warning of their coming. Some of the streets are so narrow that two sedan chairs, carried in opposite directions, cannot pass. On such occasions the carriers of one chair must stop until the others squeeze their way between the wall of a store and the people, who are constantly passing to and fro. It is natural, when carrying burdens on poles, to have poles resting on both shoulders, but the crowded streets here will not permit of that. The load has to be carried on one shoulder, the pole pointing in front. While the narrow streets and teeming crowds make it much harder for men to bear loads in that manner, how much more inconvenient it must be for a woman carrying the same weight, with a baby tied to her back! There appeared to be as many women as men with the weight-carrying poles over their shoulders, and with both sexes coolie custom seemed to forbid walking, as all moved at a trot when space permitted.