my cook
selected the best inn for my resting place, the best inn in such cases
being usually the one which promised him the largest squeeze. All the
towns through which the road passes swarm with inns, for there is an
immense floating population to provide for. Competition is keen. Touts
stand at the doorway of every inn, who excitedly waylay the traveller
and cry the merits of their houses. At the counter inside the entrance,
piles of pukais (the warm Chinese bedding), are stacked for hire--few of
the travellers carry their own bedding. The inns are sufficiently
comfortable. The bedrooms are in one or two stories and are arranged
round one or more, or a succession of courts. The cheapness is to be
commended. For supper, bed, and light, tea during the night and tea
before starting in the morning, and various little comforts, such as hot
water for washing, the total charge for the six nights of my journey
from Chungking to Suifu was 840 cash (_1s. 9d._).

Rice was my staple article of diet; eggs, fowls, and vegetables were
also abundant and cheap; but I avoided pork which is the flesh
universally eaten throughout China by all but the Mohammedans and
vegetarians. In case of emergency I had a few tins of foreign stores
with me. I made it a point never to drink water--I drank tea. No
Chinaman ever drinks anything cold. Every half hour or hour he can reach
an inn or teahouse where tea can be infused for him in a few minutes.
The price of a bowl of tea with a pinch of tea-leaves, filled and
refilled with hot water _ad lib_, is two cash--equal to the twentieth
part of one penny. Pork has its weight largely added to by being
injected with water, the point of the syringe being passed into a large
vein; this is usually described as the Chinese method of "watering
stock."

On the third day we were at Yuenchuan, sixty-three miles from Chungking.
On the 5th, we passed through Luchow, one of the richest and most
populous cities on the Upper Yangtse, and at noon next day we again
reached the Yangtse at the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy, two miles
down the river from the large town of Lanchihsien. According to my
interpretation of the gesticulations of Laokwang, we were then forty
miles from Suifu, and a beautiful sunny afternoon before us, in which to
easily cover one half the distance. But I must reckon with my guide. He
wished to remain here; I wished to go on; but as I could not understand
his Chinese explanation, nor advance a