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with it by three fortified gateways, is Niu-ching, the Tartar City, with a rectangular area of twelve square But the Tartar City contains within itself another enclosure, Hwang-ching, the Yellow or Imperial City, set apart for great dignitaries and the Imperial Gardens and pleasure-ground. And within Hwang-ching there is yet another walled enclosure, Kin-ching, the Red or Prohibited City, containing only the palaces of the Emperor and the residences of his immediate retainers. The complete circuit of all this agglomeration of houses, temples, and palaces is twenty-five miles. The Chinese City extends farther east and west than the Tartar City to the north of it, and Kia-tsing intended to

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have carried the walls of the former completely round the latter. Thus there would have been four separate walled cities, each capable of separate defence, arranged one within another; but the Emperor's ambitious scheme was frustrated by his inability to procure sufficient funds-an obstacle which has militated against the successful completion of a good many great designs in Oriental as well as in Occidental lands.

There is no mountain or hill of any kind in the vicinity of Pekin, but a good general view of the city can be obtained from the summit of the lofty walls. Let us suppose ourselves on a point of vantage on the outer walls, near the boundary of the two cities. A strange panorama lies outspread before us. The sun, shining with intense brightness from a sky of unclouded blue, projects thick black shadows from every object, whilst its rays sparkle on roofs of tarnished tiles, or illumine the masses of gold and blue and

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rows of embrasures, with the muzzles of cannon; but as these cannon are in many cases wooden dummies, they are not so formidable as they appear to be.

The governor of the city bears the title of General of the Nine Gates. The captaincy of each gate is held by one of the imperial princes, who largely increase their income by obtaining something for themselves above the regular tariff from all persons entering the city with goods. Chinese officials make the most of their opportunities, and the deputies who watch the gates, by taking eggs from baskets and lumps of coal from the backs of camels, manage to make their posts very profitable. The gates are all locked at curfew; but a bribe to the Manchoorian guard will procure a ready passage. As regards military defence, the walls and gates are practically useless. For a long period nothing has been spent on them, and a crowd of wretched structures are reared against the ramparts in the extramural suburbs. The garrison of the city consists of the bannermen, descendants of the followers of the various Manchoo chiefs who took part in the conquest of China in 1644. These chiefs built the numerous Fuhs, many of them still handsome, but generally in a ruinous condition. The bannermen are only responsible to their own officers, and not amenable to the civil jurisdiction.

The city is divided by the broad streets that cross it at right angles, as well as by an infinitude of narrow lanes. In the great streets are many shops, with peculiar carved and gilded fronts; a broad pathway runs along in front of the houses; the centre of the street is elevated about two feet, to form a carriage-way, and between this and the footpath, in the busy streets, the thoroughfare is obstructed by a long line of mean-looking huts and shops. The streets are not, in general, paved; in dry weather the dust lies in heaps, and in wet weather the immense quantities of mud make locomotion very difficult. Carts wrecked in two or three feet of mud are in some streets common occurrences.

Proceeding now to describe some of the more prominent edifices and monuments and characteristic scenes of the Chinese capital, we will begin with the Observatory that towers so conspicuously above the south-eastern ramparts to which it is annexed. Seen from the centre of the city, its massive astronomical instruments stand out against the sky like some colossal insect. The present edifice, built under the Ming dynasty, is a square tower about sixty-five feet in height, which replaced an earlier Mongol observatory on the same site. Some large bronze astronomical instruments in the lower courtyard are said to date from the Mongol era. When Kanghi, the second Emperor of the present dynasty, was reigning at Pekin (A.D. 1662-1723), the Jesuits were at intervals in high favour with him. They engraved for him a large map of China from a survey executed by his orders, and under their superintendence larger and more complicated instruments were fabricated for the Observatory. When the Jesuits were expelled, and their property confiscated, this establishment was spared, and everything has remained for over a century as Father Verbiest left it. The old guardian, who dwells at the foot of the tower, is scrupulously forbidden to clean or polish anything for fear of damage. In the courtyard is an ancient water-clock-an arrangement of metal basins, in which the dropping of the water from one to another marked every quarter of an hour on an indicator, in accordance with which the time of day was announced by drum-beat from the adjacent city wall. On the platform of the tower stand eight large instruments for estimating the distances, movements,

magnitude, etc, of the heavenly bodies. They are supported on fantastic bronze-work of winged dragons. The celestial globe, over eight feet in diameter, shows all the stars known in 1650, and visible in the latitude of Pekin.

Very near the Observatory is the University, or Temple of Letters, consisting of a large walled enclosure of about four acres.

Beyond the entrance-gate and adjoining halls

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is a large area, subdivided by numerous lanes, lined on each side with cells about four feet square, in which the students sit to write their theses at the examinations. 10,000 of these cells, and additional ones can be added when needed. As many as 14,000 students have been examined at once, though about 6,000 is now the average number. In the centre is a pavilion of three storeys, from which the governor and his colleagues can inspect the whole area, and every precaution is taken to prevent access to the outer world or communication with other students.

The two institutions just described are near the Ha-ta-mên, the south-eastern gate of the northern or Tartar City. From this gate runs due northward the longest street in Pekin. It

is about ninety feet in width, and on each side of the central causeway is a line of booths and eating-houses and temporary shops-a sort of Rag Fair, for second-hand wearing apparel seems the prevailing merchandise dealt in. Cook-shops abound, and are well patronised. The permanent shops beside the street are many of them elegantly carved and richly gilded. The

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street we are now describing is the most populous and most commercial of the Tartar City. Very few females, and those only of the lowest class, mingle in the busy crowd. Here and there are seen Lama priests in their yellow robes, with yellow hats turned up with brown fur, surmounted by a crimson silk knob. Amongst the street vendors the charcoal-sellers are conspicuous, carrying piles of their ware in baskets suspended across their shoulders. The beggars, especially near the gate at each end, are terribly annoying, kow-towing and kicking up the dust most persistently. Now and then some great mandarin passes along with Oriental pomp and ceremony. Mounted couriers ride in front; behind his chair, even if

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