There are numerous signs that Hangchow is waking up. We are informed that a railroad, connecting us with Shanghai, Soochow, and Ningpo, is a certainty of the near future. There has been unwonted activity in buying land at and near the Settlement; and the vacant spaces lying between Kongzenjao and _the North Gate are held at increasingly high prices. Certain Chinese of great influence are trying to arrange for the building of two good roads from the Settlement to the river, one on each side of the city; these roads would be at least 12° miles long. They are to be 120 feet wide, and automobiles are talked of for the pleasure of sightseers. Not many more beautiful roads could be devised than one running to the base of the hills and around the famous West Lake.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.