After a 12-day trip across the mountains, von Richthofen reached the Mache ferry harbor in Dongyang. There, he hired two bamboo rafts and traveled about 35 km to Fotang. It was a very hot and sunny day. All the villages along the way were praying to the Dragon King for rain.

In addition to providing a detailed description of the raft—which according to him consisted of three special small bamboo rafts, with the front section tilted up and the two rear sections hanging loosely on the front section so that the three sections formed an easy-to-maneuver raft—he also talked about the goods carried by the raft, which included ham, tea leaves, wax, and various herbs being brought downriver, and salt, pottery, iron utensils, bricks, lime, and cotton products being transported upriver. Once in Fotang, he said that a somewhat important bazaar was formed there.

It did not take long, then, to reach the city of Jinhua. The first thing that caught von Richthofen’s sight was a tall, magnificent tower, which must have been Wanfo Pagoda. He was also impressed by the strong city walls, which were built with red sandstone and were mostly covered by climbing plants.

Securing the crafts, von Richthofen explored the city on foot and saw signs of a wounded city left behind by the Taiping Army, which had torn away the prosperity of Jinhua—a deserted and sparsely populated city, in his eyes. He also mentions a strong and beautiful bridge built of red sandstone, with a magnificent arch on a sturdy pier, lying between the city and the opposite bank. The gentleness of Jinhua’s people impressed him, who noted that despite his different appearance, locals would be very friendly and rarely followed him.

The following day, their rafts took them to Lanxi. Though it had also been affected by the Taiping Army, Lanxi had recovered the original appearance of the city. In his text, von Richthofen mentioned an interesting point regarding the decline of Lanxi: we usually think that it is due to the development of railway shipping, but, instead, von Richthofen, early in 1871, already had the impression of an old prosperity gone forever. As a matter of fact, he observed that although the major waterway from Guangzhou to Hangzhou was being used to make Lanxi very prosperous, it was even back then being overshadowed by the development of steamship lines along the seacoast. Goods passing from Guangzhou to the north were no longer transported along the numerous inland waterways, but directly by sea steamers to Shanghai, shortening the shipment time to a few days. (English text edited by Kendra Fiddler)

从东阳坐船到兰溪

经过12天的翻山之旅，他们来到东阳的麻车渡口，并以3元的价钱雇了两个竹排行70里去佛堂。那是个酷热的大晴天，一路上经过的所有村庄都在祈雨、拜龙王。

李希霍芬详细描述了竹筏的样子，看起来很有趣：“这条河上的竹筏都很长，由三节特别的小竹筏组成。前面的一节上翘，后面的两节松松地挂在前面这节上，以便于三节构成一条易于活动的竹筏链。每节竹筏上都有个一英尺高的平台，上面十分干燥。”他也详细描述了竹筏运送的物资：除了火腿外，沿河而下还有茶叶、蜡和各种草药，向上运输的有盐、陶器、铁器、砖瓦、生石灰和棉花制品。

不知为何，李希霍芬把东阳江和南江在佛堂交汇后的河流称为“桑河”。他说，这里形成了一个有些重要的集市，不用说，就是佛堂的集市。

不久，金华城到了。首先映入李希霍芬眼帘的是“一座秀颀的高塔”，这应该就是万佛塔了。金华坚固的城墙也给李希霍芬留下不错的印象：墙用红色沙石建成，大部分为攀缘植物所覆盖。假如是植物学家在此，将会大有收获。

泊好船，李希霍芬进城逛了逛。然而，他看到的却是一座“伤城”：因为太平军的缘故，金华城繁华逝去，四处荒芜，人烟稀少。“有几条主要的街道已经得到重建，路两旁虽也有商店，但卖的只是周围居民的必需品……出了这些街道，所见只有废墟。就连达官贵人们堂皇的衙门也都被毁了。”他还写到了“一座以红色方沙石建成的又牢固又漂亮的大桥，坚固的桥墩上架着气派的拱，横亘在城市与对岸之间”。金华的民风柔和也让李希霍芬赞叹：“我们的长相固然特别，但他们表现得都十分和善，很少追着我们看。”

次日，船到兰溪。兰溪也被太平军毁坏了，但城市的大部分原貌已经得到重建。在文中，李希霍芬还提到了一个有意思的观点。与我们通常认为的兰溪航运走向衰落，是因为铁路的兴起不同，李希霍芬1871年经过兰溪时，已经感受到“旧日繁华一去不复返”。他如是分析原因：“从广州到杭州的交通要道过去虽然曾令此地十分繁荣，但现在因为有了沿海的蒸汽船运而黯然失色了。从广州运往北方的货物不再选择经由浅滩众多的内河运输，而是从海上用汽轮运往上海，要不了几天的时间就到了。这是蒸汽航运给中国带来的缓慢却不可抵挡的改变之一。”