A STRANGE CITY.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1923, Page 1

A STRANGE CITY.

(B.v Rachael Humphreys, E.R.G.S. Author of "Travels East of Suez.”)

Canton is a city of concentrated smells.

It consists of three parts: the Lure pent) settlement, called the Slmmeon the native igiarier. and the boat population all around it.

The whole place is an ant-hill, teeming with human beings. The crowds ol people (tin be faintly grasped if one thinks of tho population of London packed into an area, the size of Hampstead.

The -trcel - are wide enough lor only one chair at a time, and as they arc thronged with pedestrians it is difficult to get along. Each street has its own speciality - furniture, ivory carving. >dk embroidery. silk weaving, lacquer work, shoes, as the case may he; hut huti liers’ shops rot nr with great frequency—horrible places with roast pig or dog hanging up and scraps of av. l id-lookiug flesh. The fish-shops rival them.

Provision stores are very numerous •dsn. with ready cooked loud such aourd and hatter cakes, dried rats, and those greatest of all delicacies ten-year old eggs.

The resta-urants contain large pans of boiling fat or oil with various oddments, which are added to the howl ol the customer, woo carries it oil, steam-

ing; or sometimes a group may he seen sitting round one ol these pans, each one holding close to his mouth the how l, while I lie other hand tosses in the rice with chop-sticks. The shops arc small and narrow; in front of many are peculiar gates which. a,~ soon as a foreign customer enters, are closed to keep out the crowd.

Outside in a small brick or stone niche joss -ticks are seen burning to propitiate the gods. T-mples of pagodas abound and are much i'ivqut nted ; the leading up to them aie tilled with men sitting at small tables surrounded by ( lieiils consulting them on their fortunes or about having lottery tickets end other ahairs of life. F"f dohn

( liimiman i . a horn .".ambler. The river which surrounds the Sham ecu is called the Pearl—a terrible misnomer. On it are packed the sampans, or junks, in which live at hast AtMl.Oiit! people, and this class of population i- | quite dilL rent from the city one. It i- almu-l ine.io-sihl" to count the boat population here, ami indeed in all parlor China.