China and the West

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal (1859).
Zig zagging with them like the wall of china.
It winds along the irregular lines of tussocks like the wall of China over hill & dale.
You wonder how the world looks to them – if those are eyes which they have got or bits of old china – familiar with soap-suds.
… often this distance & this strangeness between us & our nearest neighbors - They are our Austrias & Chinas - & South Sea Islands.
They looked like 2 old-fashioned china saucers.
But as for the meaning of the sentence – that is as completely over-locked as if it had none. This is the Chinese – the Aristot(e)lean Method.
We become aware of as there are many versts between us & them as between a wandering Tartar of a Chinese or American Town.