* In places it is more like a river of syrup than of water: in some tributaries 30 per cent of its bulk is silt, compared with only 0.2 per cent for the Yangtze.

* It was actually a Shanghai junk, brought down by a local British businessman who was eager to show off. But no local boatman could, or would, work so alien a craft – which is why it found its way, uselessly, into the club gardens. It disappeared during the anti-Japanese war.

* The Qin – or Ch‘in – dynasty was the origin of the English word ‘China’.