The Face of China by Emily Georgiana Kemp

Gradually the scenery changed as we approached British territory, and then, quite suddenly, the vegetation became tropical within a day's march of the frontier. The trees are much more lofty, and rise as straight as darts up into the blue. Often they are strangled by the huge creepers which wind round and round them, and seem to draw their life-blood from the trees which they kill, becoming almost as large in the trunk, and with great bloated leaves concealing their victims. Long feelers hang down from the tree-tops, and orchids and ferns grow profusely, high up among the branches. Everything possesses a brilliancy and size and vitality which has in it something fearful; indeed, it is as if it were an evil power brooding over everything and crushing weaker things in a relentless grasp. The spider-webs are like gauze handkerchiefs spread over the banks, in the centre of which are gaping doorways, where you see the monster spider sprawling with an insolent, will-you-walk-into-my-parlour air. The monkeys chatter and jabber unseen; some of them -- the "gibbons" -- are of a large size. Parrots scream, and modest-plumaged familiar birds are replaced by brilliant ones with shrill, unsympathetic voices. We met, too, various tribes-people, such as Shans and Kachins.

Our spirits fell somewhat, too, at the thought of leaving China, of parting from our pleasant company, and ending the most delightful tour we had ever had. The last night we spent at a "head man's" house, but his Excellency was away from home. We had a pleasant upstairs room overlooking a large courtyard filled with pack-animals, whose driver slept with them in the open, according to custom, despite a terrific thunderstorm in the middle of the night. There was no door to our room, but we hung up a curtain, and a soldier slept just outside. Mr. Ku and Liu slept one on each side of the family altar downstairs. We started next morning at the usual hour, and after some miles our military escort took leave of us, at the edge of the stream which divides the two greatest empires in the world. A rude trunk acted as bridge, and we saw Liu timorously hesitating on the edge, till one of the coolies took pity on him and came and handed him across. As this was the first time that our men had been on British soil (with the exception of two of them), we felt we ought to do something to celebrate the event, and I was very anxious that they should look their best when we came to the British outpost. It was in vain, however, that I had offered to have them all shaved and coiffed, as I found it would practically take a day to get it done; and also there was a difficulty in even procuring a barber in any of the adjoining villages. It is astounding the difference the shaving makes in their appearance, as the larger part of the head is kept shaved. We had to give up the hope of making a brave show, but this did not signify so much when we found that there was no British outpost.