Excerpt from A Journey to the Tea Countries of China: Including Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills; With a Short Notice of the East India Company's Tea Plantations in the Himalaya Mountains It is now about five years since I submitted to the public my 'Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China.' Shortly after the publication of that volume I was deputed by the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East India Company to proceed to China for the purpose of obtaining the finest varieties of the Tea-plant, as well as native manufacturers and implements, for the Government Tea plantations in the Himalayas. On the 20th of June, 1848, I left Southampton, with many other passengers, in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship 'Ripon,' Captain Moresby, I.N., and landed in Hong-kong on the 14th of August. As I went far inland, and visited many districts almost unknown to Europeans, I now venture to lay an account of my travels and their results before the public. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.