A part of the
town was so much below the level of the canal, that only the tops of the
walls (at least 25 feet high) could be seen from our boats.... It proved
to be, next to Tien-tsin, by far the largest and most populous place we
had yet seen, the capital itself excepted." (Sketches of China, I.
pp. 277-278.) - H.C.]
The headquarters of the salt manufacture of Hwai-ngan is a place called
Yen-ching ("Salt-Town"), some distance to the S. of the former city
(Pauthier).
CHAPTER LXVII.
OF THE CITIES OF PAUKIN AND CAYU.
When you leave Coiganju you ride south-east for a day along a causeway
laid with fine stone, which you find at this entrance to Manzi. On either
hand there is a great expanse of water, so that you cannot enter the
province except along this causeway. At the end of the day's journey you
reach the fine city of PAUKIN. The people are Idolaters, burn their dead,
are subject to the Great Kaan, and use paper-money. They live by trade and
manufactures and have great abundance of silk, whereof they weave a great
variety of fine stuffs of silk and gold. Of all the necessaries of life
there is great store.
When you leave Paukin you ride another day to the south-east, and then you
arrive at the city of CAYU. The people are Idolaters (and so forth). They
live by trade and manufactures and have great store of all necessaries,
including fish in great abundance. There is also much game, both beast and
bird, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can have three good pheasants.
[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - Paukin is PAO-YING-Hien [a populous place, considerably below the
level of the canal (Davis, Sketches, I. pp. 279-280)]; Caya is
KAO-YU-chan, both cities on the east side of the canal. At Kao-yu, the
country east of the canal lies some 20 feet below the canal level; so low
indeed that the walls of the city are not visible from the further bank of
the canal. To the west is the Kao-yu Lake, one of the expanses of water
spoken of by Marco, and which threatens great danger to the low country on
the east. (See Alabaster's Journey in Consular Reports above quoted, p.
5 [and Gandar, Canal Imperial, p. 17. - H.C.])
There is a fine drawing of Pao-ying, by Alexander, in the Staunton
collection, British Museum.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
OF THE CITIES OF TIJU, TINJU, AND YANJU.
When you leave Cayu, you ride another day to the south-east through a
constant succession of villages and fields and fine farms until you come
to TIJU, which is a city of no great size but abounding in everything.
