Explore "Chinese Sketches" by Herbert A. Giles on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Many residents in China are profoundly ignorant of the existence of a / native postal service; and even the few who have heard of such an / institution, are not aware of the comparative safety and speed with / which even a valuable letter may be forwarded from one end of the / Empire to the other. Government despatches are conveyed to their / destinations by a staff of men specially employed for the purpose, and / under the control of the Board of War in Peking. They ride from / station to station at a fair pace, considering the sorry, ill-fed nags / upon which they are mounted; important documents being often carried / to great distances, at a rate of two hundred miles a-day. The people, / however, are not allowed to avail themselves of this means of / communication, but the necessities of trade have driven them to / organise a system of their own.
In any Chinese town of any pretensions whatever, there are sure to be / several "letter offices," each monopolising one or more provinces, to / and from which they make it their special business to convey letters / and small parcels. The safety of whatever is entrusted to their care / is guaranteed, and its value made good if lost; at the same time, the / contents of all packets must be declared at the office where posted, / so that a corresponding premium may be charged for their transmission. / The letter-carriers travel chiefly on foot, sometimes on donkeys, to / be found on all the great highways of China, and which run with / unerring accuracy from one station to another, unaccompanied by any / one except the hirer. There is little danger of the donkeys being / stolen, unless carried off bodily, for heaven and earth could no more / move them from their beaten track than the traveller who, desirous of / making two stages without halting, could induce them to pass the door / of the station they have just arrived at. Carrying about eighty or / ninety pounds weight of mail matter, these men trudge along some five / miles an hour till they reach the extent of their tether; there they / hand over the bag to a fresh man, who starts off, no matter at what / hour of the day or night, and regardless of good or bad weather alike, / till he too has quitted himself of his responsibility by passing on / the bag to a third man.