Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/213

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CH'ÊNGTU TO SUI FU.

I Ch'êngtu in a rather inferior kuadza on December 17th. The price demanded for the six or seven days' journey down the Min river to Sui Fu at its junction with the Yang-tsze was 90 taels, and the exorbitant sum finally decided upon was 70 taels. The European never seems to have the limitless amount of time at his disposal which the Easterner has, and he is consequently at a hopeless disadvantage when entering upon bargaining operations. As it was, it took me two days of valuable time to reduce the 90 taels demanded to 70.