| Show ad bibek X j K P M N v if J crowded shipping on the win min river at Prep prepared areil by tho the national geographic society washington D 0 which once ranted ranked fand among the tea ports of the world and then two decades ago bowed to ceylon and japan Is staging a comeback the steep slopes of furlen fucien province ot of which Is capital and leading city again are covered with thriving tea bushes big men women and children throng the plantations 10 ns picking tea leaves f from rom dawn to d dusk tea laden porters form an almost endless parade from the plantation to the tea warehouses and boats on on the min alin piled with packages of tea recall the days when yankee clipper ships cleared with cargoes of fragrant leaves destined to american teapots port Is really not in the cites suburbs tile the nearest gate in the cites five ralle mile vine clad wall Is more than three miles from the north bank of the alin about 34 miles from the sea few travelers visit to reach the port one must go by boat for railroads und and good roads are noi not to be found in this region ocean going vessels from shanghai and uong hong kong make regular trips up the min alin which penetrates the chinese coast opposite the north end of taiwan formosa the vessels may steam up the river as far as pagoda anchorage there passengers are transferred to launches which after nine miles of dodging matting covered sam lp pans ins and grotesquely carved high pooped junks deposit their human cargo at the cites suburban docks if one wants to go native however he be nay may board a native boat with the owners family owls fowls dogs and pigs and travel in the atmosphere of the min alin the rivers obstruction at pagoda anchorage Is artificial artif lelal formed when stone laden barges were sunk there to prevent a french fleet from reaching the city during the franco foo chow troubles in 1884 it Is the characteristic act of the chinese love for things as they are that b business men have waited so BO long to take stops steps to clear the channel find and thus avald the endless annoyance of reloading of cargoes from river to city the journey from the river to the city may be made by bus or sedan chair frequently travelers traveler S prefer p refer to be landed on the south side of the river where they get a glimpse of the most modern portion of the foreign settlement on a small hill bill are foreign consulates western churches hospitals find and handsome residences which constitute a community almost independent of the chinese city while below Is a bustness business district with streets lined with foreign and native owned shops shop where eastern and western merchandise Is on display commodious clubs wide sweeps of grassy lawns dolt dotted ed with flowering gardens a race track tennis courts and pleasure craft on the min alin tend to keep the small foreign population contented the visitor should not hurry into proper even if lie he could for to do so would be to miss the physical beauties and fabled history that accentuate each step of the journey from the ocean to the port along the min alin one rally may see pearl divers should a diver be drowned his fellows stoically conclude that lie he has fallen a victim to the sea turtle chinese equivalent for the legendary sea serpent of tile tho west near pagoda anchorage rises sharp peak capped by a tower built by a wife to welcome home an oriental orle hilloch arden who when he saw it thought he had mistaken the river and sailed away again never to return A mandarins footprint in a rock commemorates me the summary punishment of quarrymen who kept righton chopping away its companion footprint despite the flow of blood that spurted out at each stroke when removed to a place in a bridge it registered a protest by kicking its bearers into the river so the companion was not molested inside the wall a few modern schools and government buildings have baa punctuated an otherwise low hat flat sky line of rather dingy buildings telegraph keys click in telegraph offices electric lights aro are available to those wiio who can afford them a few automobiles to mobiles may be seen on the main streets and western fashions vie with those of the but if the traveler steps into a side street he be steps into an era several centuries past streets that twist and turn and come to abrupt stops were marked features ot of foo fee chows early city planners for example the tortuous roun of one street might be visualized by drawing a diagram it begins by running eastward and then northward eastward northward eastward northward eastward southward westward southward southeastward southward westward southward eastward and southward travelers use sedan chairs chair the whole course of this thoroughfare Is equal to but a few american city blocks in length and nowhere Is it wide enough tor for even a to pass without driving playing children ond and their playmates filthy dogs and pigs into bordering doorways the sedan chair Is used by most travelers to penetrate the pas sag eways where the odors permeating the atmosphere are so overwhelming to foreign nostrils that chair bearers are urged on to the nearest breathing spaces ancient as seems to be to the westerner it Is a sort of wild west of china to the natives of canton and in the days das of confucius all china looked upon the region that now Is fullen province pio vince as the bailiwick of barbarians the wall that encompasses the theclith clity ty did not rise until the ming period which covered the years that america was discovered and colonized while poor transportation facilities for reaching have constituted an important factor in keeping the city truly oriental cholera and the bubonic plague have also caused outsiders to give it a wide berth perhaps the pleasant est portion of a F tour Is a visit to the tea factories and warehouses where tea leaves scented with jasmines jasminos jas mines roses and chrysanthemums are sorted from dawn to dusk by chinese women and children last year exported more than pounds of fu klen kien tea and re exported an additional pounds which were shipped to its tea perfumeries eries there are more than forty tea factories in the tha city the open shops along the R streets reveal thousands of natives eking out an existence in various industries destries dus tries before ones eyes artisans make wooden pillows and images of gods and odd looking beasts cabinet makers turn out fancy furniture potters shape and fire handsome vessels brick makers fashion their products in all shapes sizes and colors both men and women sit silently embroider ing or weaving the dark cloth usually worn woin by peasants and dyers with inky hands seemingly turn old garments into new of a different color trade with 27 cities and many small vil village lageE above which are reached by bv river boats accounts for much of Foo chows commercial activity it was not until 1861 when the alin was opened to forcin shipping that the cites suburbs spread out along the alin banks and beckoned to world trade since then Foo chows annual output of tea alone once benched nearly pounds and it bids fair to repeat the tha dog worshipers on a mountain not far from the city alt one encounters the dog worshipers easily distinguishable by the pecullar peculiar coiffure of their women a scaffold like effect with a cord dangling before the face this Is worn because of a myth which holds that a dog once saved the city and the gods rewarded him by subjecting him to ft a process by which he was to become huran human after his incarceration for seven times forty days an Impat impatient lent provincial pandora lifted the cover when nil fill but his head had been transformed and thus left it a dog headed man maill in going coln to claim his bride his fare ws covered so hla his canine fen features turca might not offend her so to this day tile the women of the mountain wear the headdress in honor of him rand on new years day they worship the image of a dog near the city Is doctrine hill which derives this one of its many names from tile the residence there of a certain learned man who accumulated a library a volume shelf known us lie the doctrine of the universe |
