The comfort of the traveller in a chair along this road depends entirely upon the sureness of foot of his two bearers--a false step, and chair and traveller would tumble down the cliff into the foaming river below.

Deep and narrow was the mountain river, and it roared like a cataract, yet down the passage a long narrow junk, swarming with passengers, was racing, its oars and bow-sweep worked by a score of sailors singing in chorus.

The boat appeared, passed down the reach, and was out of sight in a moment; a single error, the slightest confusion, and it would have been smashed in fragments on the rocks and the river strewn with corpses.
We did a good stage before breakfast.

Every few li where the steepness of the valley side permits it, there are straw-thatched, bamboo and plaster inns.

Here rice is kept in wooden bins all ready steaming hot for the use of travellers; good tea is brewed in a few minutes; the tables and chopsticks are sufficiently clean.
Leaving the river, we crossed over the mountains by a short cut to the river again, and at a wayside inn, much frequented by Chinese, the chair stage finished.