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jackets without waistcoats, with barely visible signs of neckties. All the offices are open wide; there, Chinese, under the supervision of Englishmen, pack and unpack bales, put them in piles, carry them to boats which then take them to the ships. Only the intrepid Chinese fill the streets, sitting in groups by the entrances, waiting for work, carrying Europeans in sedan-chairs. One sees their bare shoulders, backs, legs everywhere and their heads protected only by two tight thick rows of pigtail.
We reached the Chinese quarter, which begins immediately after the European. It consists of a huge row of shops, with living space above, as in Singapore. The shops are small, selling fabrics, crockery, tea, fruit. Artisans too are located here, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths and others. By the doors signs hang from the top down to the floor: they are narrow, a quarter of an arshin* in width, strips of paper with Chinese lettering. The shopmen (shopkeepers?), all decidedly near naked, sit on the counters with their legs folded under them.
We entered a shop with fruit lying in mounds. Apart from pineapples and small oranges, called mandarins, all the others were unknown to us. The pineapples gave off their pungent aroma, while the shopkeeper reeked of garlic, and then to add to this, right next door, from a shop selling foodstuffs, emanated an almost putrid odour of meat hanging in the sun, fish lying in heaps, animal entrails, and still other items which we were reluctant to examine.
Kind K.H., at my request, tried all the fruit and gave me an accurate idea of how they all tasted - "This one is sweet, with a pleasant sourness while this one is doughy and tasteless; and this one," he said about some small red skinned fruit, that looked more like a berry, "smells of baked onion." etc.
By walking through the Chinese quarter we reached the sea and the floating population, then we went up a little hill and far down an alley - a continuation of the Chinese quarter. The same sort of shops, the same dirtiness. But in this confusion of cries, smells, in the crush, among the little hovels, midst all manner of stuff lying in heaps, the Chinese are somehow livelier, they walk freer: they've established their little China here and they're happy! In the European quarter, the space,
240
jackets without waistcoats, with barely visible signs of neckties. All the offices are open wide; there, Chinese, under the supervision of Englishmen, pack and unpack bales, put them in piles, carry them to boats which then take them to the ships. Only the intrepid Chinese fill the streets, sitting in groups by the entrances, waiting for work, carry- ing Europeans in sedan-chairs. One sees their bare shoulders, backs, legs everywhere and their heads protected only by two tight thick rows of pigtail.
We reached the Chinese quarter, which begins immediately after the European. It consists of a huge row of shops, with living space above, as in Singapore. The shops are small, selling fabrics, crockery, tea, fruit. Artisans too are located here, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths and others. By the doors signs hang from the top down to the floor: they are narrow, a quarter of an arshin* in width, strips of paper with Chinese lettering. The shopmen (shopkeepers?), all decidedly near naked, sit on the counters with their legs folded under them.
We entered a shop with fruit lying in mounds. Apart from pine- apples and small oranges, called mandarins, all the others were un- known to us. The pineapples gave off their pungent aroma, while the shopkeeper reeked of garlic, and then to add to this, right next door, from a shop selling foodstuffs, emanated an almost putrid odour of meat hanging in the sun, fish lying in heaps, animal entrails, and still other items which we were reluctant to examine.
Kind K.H., at my request, tried all the fruit and gave me an accu- rate idea of how they all tasted - "This one is sweet, with a pleasant sourness while this one is doughy and tasteless; and this one," he said about some small red skinned fruit, that looked more like a berry, "smells of baked onion." etc.
By walking through the Chinese quarter we reached the sea and the floating population, then we went up a little hill and far down an alley - a continuation of the Chinese quarter. The same sort of shops, the same dirtiness. But in this confusion of cries, smells, in the crush, among the little hovels, midst all manner of stuff lying in heaps, the Chinese are somehow livelier, they walk freer: they've established their little China here and they're happy! In the European quarter, the space,
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