The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-07 00:00:00

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.

A letter from Shanghae of the 2d August, in the
Moniteur, contains the following interesting account
of a visit to the Great Wall of China :
" The treaties of Tien-sin having been ratified by
the Emperor Hien-Foung, Baron Gros was desirous
of visiting the Great Wall; and of judging, from
• personal observation, of the correctness of the
statements representing it as commencing in the
sea at the entrance of the Bay of Leo-Toung. At 7
o'clock in the morning of the 11th July, the Am-
bassador, followed by his secretaries and attaches,
embarked on board the small steamer the Pregent.
The distance of the Wall from the place where the
Audacieuse frigate was at anchor was thought to
be from 30 to 40 leagues. Towards evening, the
weather not being very clear, it was thought pru-
dent not to approach too close to the shore, and the
steamer came to an anchor in the offing. At day-
break on the following morning she again got under
weigh, and soon after the Wall appeared in view.
It looked like a long range of buildings of the same
height, crenellated, and traversing the plain from
the sea to the foot of the chain of mountains which
run parallel with the coast, but at more than a league
inland. An hour after, the Wall, with its crenellated
top, forts, jetties running out into the sea, and, the
pagoda on the shore, were perfectly distinct in all
their details. We had before us the most pictu-
resque prospect that can be imagined; along the
sea coast the vast plain is covered with the most
luxuriant vegetation, with numerous villages
buried in trees, and at the back a horizon of lofty
mountains. At the foot of the Wall, on the
side of China, were seen the white tents of two Tar-
tar camps, with their horses grazmg at liberty
around. Seen from the Chinese side the Wall re-
sembles an immense work in earth, crowned with
a crenelated wall in brick, but in a very dilapi-
dated state. On the Man tchouria side, on the con-
trary, it is built of brick on a foundation of stone.
It has, along the whole length, square towers at a
distance from each other of about two bowshots'
length, so that the enemy might be struck 'from
either of them. It runs down into the sea by two
parallel jetties, the incline of which is so slight that
persons landing from a boat may easily walk up to.
them. The largest vessels may approach to within
about two miles of this spot, which is the place
where future tourists ought to land. Unfortunately
we were not then aware of this fact, and we came
to an anchor at a spot where the landing was not
very easy. The shore was soon covered with
Chinese from the neighbouring villages. M. Mar-
ques, the interpreter to the mission, and Count
d'Ozery, the commandant of the Pregent, were the
first to go on shore, in order to confer with the au-
thorities, and ascertain whether any objection would
be made to the landing of the party. A mandarin,
mounted on a white horse, and 'followed by two
horsemen, arrived from the camp to inquire what
these men, come from an unknown world, wanted.
On receiving pacific assurances from our interpreter,
he said no opposition, would be made to the disem-
barkation. When all were on shore, we proceeded
direct towards the Wall. We had to cross several
rivulets which ran down towards the sea, and we were
afterwards obliged to strike a little more inland, in
order to find ground rather less moist. As we
approached towards the Wall, we observed the
Tartars mounting their horses, and betraying by
their gestures considerable emotion. They sepa-
rated into three bodies—one remained on horseback
in front of the tents, thus cutting off the road to
the Wall ; another proceeded on our left, where
they alighted among the high grass ; and the third
advanced at a hand gallop to meet us. They asked
whence we came, where we were going, and told
us that they would not allow us to advance any
farther. _ Their chief, they said, was absent, and

they could not take on them-selves the responsibility
of permitting us to approach. You may judge of
our astonishment when we learned from these men,
encamped as it were at the very gates of the capi-
tal, that they had heard nothing of their country
having been at war with France and England.
1 he taking of Canton, the bombardment of Takou,
and the peace concluded at Tien-tsin, they were
completely ignorant of. After a little negotiation
we thlught we had got over our difficulty, and we
were allowed to advance, but we had not proceeded
more than 300 or 400 yards when some fresh horse-
men advanced and urgently impressed on us the
propriety of not going any farther. With our
escort of 12 men well armed, and our revolvers, we
might have kept off those 300 Tartar horsemen,
and have mounted the Wall in spite of them, but
the Ambassadc r was anxious to avoid any dispute,
and would not compromise his position for the
mere gratification of curiosity. After having
taken a few sketches, purchased some fans from
the Tartars, and astonishing a whole host of
Chinese by letting them taste our brandy,
and look at our watches and compasses, Baron
Gros returned to the boats. These Tartar
horsemen had neither bows nor arrows, but they
all had matchlock guns slung over their shoulders.
Their powder appeared to be very coarse, and in
addition to ball they had in their cartouch.boxes
small pellets of lead. Each man carried in his large
boots his pipe and fan. Before leaving the coast
we went in the Pregent to have another view of
the country on the other side of the Great Wall,
opposite the plains of Mantchouria, which were
covered with the most extraordinary verdure, only`
to be found in countries ;where this ground after
up
aisvneeegnt vegetation, tgrowingand
,
being long buried in snow is vivified by a hot sun.
toThfhi
set
the
exV
uambl 1
eo
ruwanant st,
fo
ewtehr
taehne outs6i
()do
clef
r ascending as
more
oirt
leagues, the half-savage countries which extend as
far as the confines of Mongolia and the Kou-Kou-
Noor. After having for some time contemplated
this magnificent scene, Baron Gros gave the signal
for departure, and the Pregent steered for the
Toki Islands, where the Audacieuse frigate was
waiting for u.s."