A STRANGE CITY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17720, 23 March 1923, Page 6

A STRANGE CITY.

Canton is a city of concentrated smells. ' ' , ■ It consists of three parts: the European settlement/ called the Shameen; the native quarter, and the boat population all around it.' The whole place an ant-h3l, teeming with human beings'. The crowds of people can be faintly grasped if one thinks of the population of London packed into an area, the size of jbLampstead. ' Tne streets are wide enough for only one chair at a time, ; and as they are thronged with it is diiflcult to get along. : ?'.'',.. Each street has its own speciality—furniture, ivory carving, silk embroidery, silk weaving, lacquer work, shoes, as the case may be; biit butchers'.shops 1 recur with, great frequency—horrible places with roast pig or dog hanging up and scraps of awful-looking flesh. The fish-shops'rival them. Provision stores. are very numerous also, with rea.dy cooked food such as curd and batter cakes, dTied rats, and those greatest of all delicacies, ten-year-old eggs. The restaurants contain large pans of boiling fat or oil witu various oddments, which are added to the bowl of the customer, who carries it off, steam, ing or sometimes & group may be seen sitting round one of these'pans, each one holding close to his • mouth the bowl,, while the other hand tosses in the rice with chop-sticks. '' The shops are small and narrow; in front of many are peculiar gates which, as soon as a .foreign customer enters, are closed to keep out the crowd. Outside in a sniall brick or-stone niche joss sticks are seen burning to propitiate the gods. ' " . Temples or pagcdas abound, and are much, frequented; Ine courtyards leading Up to .them are >ued with men sitting at small tables surrounded by clients consulting them on their fortunes or about buying lottery tickets and other affairs of fife. For John Chinaman is a born gambler. The river which surrounds the- Shameen is called the Pearl—a terrible misnomer. On it are packed the sam- ?™ ?iv? r J ' lra , ks ' iix whlch live at le ast •dW.UW people, and this class of population :s quite different from the city one - Kis almost impossible to count the boat population here, and indeed m all parts of China. ..