From a Westerner’s point of view, town life in China is an uneventful one. For there are, as a rule, no attractions and but few kinds of amusements, and the amusements are generally reserved for certain times of the year. At times, it is true, plague, floods, and the failure of harvest may bring to the people most disastrous consequences. But these misfortunes are, after all, the exception, and we may take the town in its normal state and describe in the present chapter the peaceful life of its people.