Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/56

 

The soft clay is modeled into numerous designs, peculiarly and quaintly oriental. The utensils are baked to a stone hardness in red-hot kilns, after which they are painted with many colors, blue and red predominating, and then baked again until the colors are firmly attached to the pottery. Probably the best pottery shops in Canton are in the Sha-kee-tai-kai district, near the island of Shameen.  

HILE the Chinese fleet, in the minds of many people not acquainted with the astonishing progress made in China during the past few years, is as nonexistent as the navy of Switzerland, the traveler in China finds that the Government maintains a small, but quite efficient, force of ships, manned by highly intelligent and fairly well-trained native sailors.

During the rule of the Manchu dynasty each province controlled its own navy and worked independently of the central Government; but, with the formation of the Republic, a reorganization was effected, and in August, 1912, the Chinese fleet was placed under the control of the Ministry of the Navy.

The Government hoped, by bringing about an amalgamation of the naval