CHAPTER XVII

Summary

To the south-east of Tsi-nan-foo is a hilly road leading to the most noteworthy portion of Shan-tung. We are now in classic China, and can use a road-chart made about twelve hundred years B.C., and a most respectable map it is. Climbing the hills to the south of the capital, ever and anon we looked back over the mighty city, sorry to leave its lively streets and busy crowds. In our ten days' stay we had seen hundreds of its women, and found them exceedingly religious. Amongst them I found many fine, matronly women who had for twenty or more years scarcely missed attending the temples at the new and the full moon, the first and the fifteenth of the Chinese months. In some of the zenanas I found women who eagerly upheld their idols, and even amongst themselves were emphatic on the merits of a favourite shrine. Thus the city of Tsi-nan-foo, with its many wealthy zenanas, had attractions in my eyes greater than almost any Chinese city I had visited, and as its lofty walls and gateways vanished from sight I hoped that ere long I might be permitted to revisit it.