Two men sitting with a sedan chair in a Hong Kong street waiting for custom, one smokes his pipe. Wood engraving by J.C. after J. Thomson.

"Life in China, X. A Hong Kong chair. A stranger landing at Hong Kong is at once known by the public chair coolies who surround him, and cut off his advance with a crescent of chairs on the wharf. If the stranger be at all a timid person, he will conclude from the barrier of chairs drawn up in front, the wild gestures of the half-dressed, ferocious looking coolies, that in the interests of self-preservation he must at once either retire to the boat, or consign himself to the care of the first chair bearers. It may be, in spite of remonstrances, and before he has time to reflect, he will find himself in a sedan on the shoulders of two Chinamen who are bearing him off to the hotel. These sedan chairs of Hong Kong take the place of the cabs of European cities, and also of private conveyances, as the residents who can afford the luxury keep private chairs and bearers who are dressed in a kind of livery. The public chairs and bearers are licensed by government, each chair having attached to it a board bearing a printed form of legal tariff. There are chair stands in front of the places of public resort, and at the wharfs, and corners of the principal streets, where the bearers keep a sharp look out for profitable customers, such as sailors from the men-of-war or merchant ships in the harbour, who, when they have a run ashore, spend a considerable portion of their pay in hiring a chair to carry them about for the day. The chair coolies make it their business to obtain a knowledge of the habits of the residents; a new comer has only to be about a month in the place, when his habits, his residence, and the houses which he is accustomed to visit, will be so thoroughly known, that after a late dinner he has only to step into the first chair to assure his being set down before his own door without a word having been exchanged. Next morning, his bearers of the previous night will appear just as he is going to office, to receive their hire from the boy in-waiting."—The graphic, loc. cit.