No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.

There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

Two series of moments, far apart yet with commonalities, involve experiences of eye-lock with a girlfriend and a hyena.

The last stretch, from K'uei Fu to Chungking, is soothing to the eye after the harsh vistas of the Gorges.[…] Fengtu, a celebrated town, which owes all its fame to being situated at the foot of the Sacred Mountain of the Son of Heaven, is the residence of the Emperor of the Dead. Just as the Emperor of the Living resided at Peking, the Emperor of the Dead has some occult existence here. When any Taoist believer dies, a priest writes a despatch to the Imperial Headquarters at Fengtu, and the communication is solemnly burnt, this being the convenient means of transit.]