Food we had now to bring with us, and only at the larger towns where the stages terminate could we expect to find food for sale.

The tea is inferior, and we had to be content with maize meal, bean curds, rice roasted in sugar, and sweet gelatinous cakes made from the waste of maize meal.

Rice can only be bought in the large towns.

It is not kept in roadside inns ready steaming hot for use, as it is in Szechuen.

Rarely there are sweet potatoes; there are eggs, however, in abundance, one hundred for a shilling (500 cash), but the coolies cannot eat them because of their dearness.