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EAST ASIA.
crowds swarm in the warehouses and counting-houses, steamers are moored along
the embankment, night and day streets and squares are alive with the busy throng.
All this bustle lasts for three months during the very hottest and most relaxing
season of the year ; and the excitement grows
to fever heat towards the end of
May, when the vessels bound for London have completed their cargoes. For the
betting on the quickest homeward passage earns for the winner not merely an
Kg. 102. WUCHANG: VIEW TAKEN FROM THE TOWEII or THE YELLOW CKANE (HOAKG-HO-LEW).
empty triumph, but double the ordinary freight. After the start silence reigns in
the European quarter, which is now deserted except by a few clerks and employes.
The native merchants deal exclusively in tobacco, hides, and other local produce,
including opium, which is now mixed with that of India for consumption in China.
The Russians, who buy both the best and the worst sorts of tea, have made Hankow
the centre of their operations for the purchase and preparation of the brick tea.
But the direct overland trade between Hankow and Siberia, through Siiigan and