The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-04-07
REV. NJ. a. HOUSTON.
Extracts from letter to gentleman in Richmond,
Va, dated Hanohou, Jan. s, 1869.

The city l am in, as regards its location
and the scenery around it, is very pleasant
place. 1t has always been favorite place
of residence with the Chinese. 1t is built
on broad strip of ground lying between
the Dzin Dong river and the Great lake, as
it is called-a lake some three or four miles
long, and a mile or so wide. This gives us
some very pretty water scenery on each side
of the city The view beyond the river is
bounded by mountains, and there are also
mountains just beyond the lake, so that there
are good many points in the city, either
from the city wall or from the hills which are
in the city, from which we get views that
would be considered beautiful in any land.
There is one feature, by tssway, of the lake
and the country around, which is quite diff
ferent from what 1 had supposed was the
case in China-that is, tAevquantity Of wild
game to be found. l had imagined that in
a country like this, where there are so many
mouths to be fed, game would be very scarce.
But so far from this, the lake abounds in
wild ducks, geese, and teals, and in the
country around there are plenty of pheas-
ants, pigeons, squirrels, deer, and also wild
boars. The Chinese are not sportsmen. 1
have several times started up pheasants in
walking through the ruined portions of the
city, and not long since l saw some men
chasing deer Immediately under the city
wall. 1 might mention as singular circum-
stance that some of the deer | have seen in
the shops for sale have tusks, like boar.
A large part of Hanchou, two thirds I should
Judge, is in ruins, destroyed by the TAPPING
insurgents at the time they captured the city.
The destruction here at that time must have
been terrible. This occurred a few years
ago. AS an example, the teacher first had
here, told us that every member of his family
had been killed except himself The city,
though, is rapidly filling up from different
quarters, and we see new buildings going up
in every direction we walk. The city wall
is about Is miles in extent, and the popula-
ton is now, perhaps, FIVE or six hundred
thousand.
have begun the study of the Mandarin
dialect of the Chinese language. This is the
dialect which prevails in the northern por-
tions of the Empire, and it is also the official
language of the country. You have often
heard the Chinese language spoke of as diff
cult, but perhaps, like myself before I came
here, you have not understood exactly what
the difficulties are. I can tell you some Of
them, as far as have got any insight into
the language. In the first place there are a
number of dialects in the Empire, which diff
fer very much from one another, so that q
man from one province is sometimes hardly
able to communicate at all with man from
another There is for instance the Ningpc
dialect, the Hanchou dialect, the Mandarin
&c. Now, in this city there are people from
a good many quarters, and if I meet Chi
naman with whom l attempt to use the little
Chinese I have acquired, find perhaps tha
he is Ningpo man, or Canton man, ant
we mutually can't understand each other a
all. l have been taught for instance to say
''puh sh, " for, ''itis not, andth Ningpo maj
has it "feh'z." And so with thousands O
words and phrases. You may get TIVE
teachers, both of them proposing to give yol
the Hanchou dialect, or the Mandarin dia
lect, and there will be considerable varia
tions in their pronunciation--that ii
they seem to us considerable variations
We have two teachers here giving US tn
Mandarin, and one of them will pronounce
word ''twe," which the other one calls "te,
one says "woh, the other "weh, one "nan,
the other ''lan," and so on. Another diff
Guilty is in the fine distinctions of pronuncia
ton. There may be, for instance, eight o
ten different words, all of which we woul
write chu; but by variations of tone, by as
piration, &C., they distinguish between ther
so as to express different ideas, In studyin!
French or Latin you feel when you hav