The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-05-26
The Largest City in the World.
Pekin, as seen by Prof. BickmOre-A Full ana
Interesting DescriptiOn--the World FAMOUS
Temples-HOW the City is laid out
Correspondence of the N. Y. Evening Mail.

Correspondence of the N. Y. Evening Mail.
BOSTON, April 2, 1870.
Prof Bickmore, the distinguished tray
e1er in China. and in the Islands of the
Fast Indies. has been delivering course
of lectures here before the Lowell Insti
tute. which have excited very general
interest. That upon Pekln mas oeen re-
parded as specially fresh and interesting
AS Prof. Bickmore is well known III New
York, and as his lecture presented by lar
the clearest and most authentic account
of the largest of the worlds cities that |
have eyer seen or heard, procured full
report of the lecture and send you good
part thereof, as follows;
PEKrN MADE THE CAPITAL.
On the accession of the Ming dynasty,
Marking, which was then the cniel CITY,
was made capital but in 142l' the Empe-
ror Yungloh moved bis court TO Fekln;
and it has since remained the capital OF
the empire During the Mongol dynasty
it was called Khanbalik, or the Getty OF
the Khan" Now it is known to It's IN
habitants as Pie Chung, or in the dialect
of the more Southern provinces, Picking,
that is, "The Northern Capital, as dls-
tineuisbed from Marking, the Southern
capital" When the Tartar City was first
enclosed with IL wall it had nine gates,
hence its ancient name, " The CITY OF the
Nine Gates" The northern part is now
called the Tarter City, because when the
present Manchu dynasty seized the
throne, the Tartar officers and soldiers
accupied it to the exclusion OF the chi
nese, who were removed to the southern
CITY, but the Chinese are so much more
crafty and economical than the Manchus
that they now possess most of the area
outside the Imperial City, and both races
live together in harmony. 1t IS quite
easy, however, to detect the olHefences
In paren age even as they pass
THE CITY WALLS.
The wall around the Tartar City aver
ages fifty feet, but in some places II Is
sixty feet. It's average width IS about
forty feet, though it varies from tittJ,sev-
en- to twenty-five feet. The outer face is
perpendicular, but the inner face slopes
Very noticeably in some places. Thin
parapcts extend along the inner and out
ef cages Oh LuC LCIlSph'ip t
outside being loopholed and creneilated'
Buttressess from fifteen to twenty yards
occur at Intervals of fifty and sixty yards,
every sixth being larger than the others
Near the gates, the outer and inner races
are composed of blocks of granite, but
most of the wall is faced with large
bricks, eight or ten inches long by four
or five wide and three or four thick. The
space between the facings is filled up,
firstly with solid concrete about ten
feet thick. This is covered with layer
of about the same thickness of earth taken
from the ditch on the inside OF the walls,
and thus layers of concre alternate with
those of earth up to the top which is GOV,
cred with large blocks of granite, and
closely resembles broad, well-paVed
street. The concrete is so compact that
the sappers of tn" English and French
armies could not cut trench through 1t
when they were beseigng the city. On
either side of the gate IS huttress ana |
semi. cirular wall which connects them to-
gether, so that at the ga.es the wall Isl
really double.