CHAPTER XIV.
GOLD, BANKS, AND TELEGRAPHS IN YUNNAN.
Yunnan City is the great gold emporium of China, for most of the gold found in China comes from the province of which it is the capital.

When a rich Chinaman returns from Yunnan to another province, or is summoned on a visit to the Emperor at Peking, he carries his money in gold not silver.

Gold leaf sent from Yunnan gilds the gods of Thibet and the temples and pagodas of Indo-China.

No caravan returns to Burma from Western China whose spare silver has not been changed into gold leaf.

In the Arracan Temple in Mandalay, as in the Shway-dagon Pagoda in Rangoon, you see the gold leaf that Yunnan produces, and in the future will produce in infinitely greater quantities.
Gold comes chiefly from the mines of Talang, eighteen days journey by land S.W.from Yunnan City, on the confines of the district which produces the famous Puerh tea.