Shooting parties
The most enjoyable entertainment was one of the shooting parties that Shanghai taipans liked to arrange that took you out into the country. You left on a slow, heavy houseboat and went up along one of the many creeks or canals, where pheasant, partridge, quail, and an occasional woodcock hid behind tall reeds. The excursion up Soochow Creek was quite popular, and you stayed on your houseboat for two or three days and walked across the empty cotton fields to do your shooting.
unless otherwise indicated