The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-08
The Citv of Pekin.

out them, now that am accusGome1 10
tbann as Il were J. P.
The City of Pekin.
heancient capital of northern China,
three days journey from the Great
Wall. on the Siberian road, uprears
itself from hideous, seemingly bound
less plain of dust, strewn with rem
nants of old buildings and all kinds OF
disheartening rubbish. There is, per-
hars. no portion of the earth's surface
on which the European feels more hope
Iessly far away from every familiar
place and person than when trayersing
this great desert plain, heaped with the
dust of ages. A few crumbling villages
break the morotony, and then comes |
wall of immense length, brown, crenu-
lated. pierced in the centre by mag
nifcent portico, the finest "gate IN
all the celestial empire. 1t is like the |
Scripture picture of the walls OF Baby.
Ion and the formidable ramparts OF
Nineveh. A lofty tower is surmounted
by a roof, consisting of i've stages OF
green tiles, pierced by five ranges OF
holes, through which grin huge cannon
mouths, very terrible, until one learns
that the guns are wooden. Far out OF
sight, on right and left, stretches
the wall, partly of granite, p'rtly
of huge gray bricks, and 20 It's
foot opens a deep, vaulted I2assage;
through which pour converglng TIDES OF
Chinese, Mongols, and Tartars, strings
of blue carts, files of black mules, cara
vans of dun-colored, heavily laden
camels; for this is the entrance to the
Chinese town.
The ancient city is divided into three
sections, the Chinese, the Tartar, and
the imperial, and each has perfectly
distinct physiognomy.,, Inc males'ic a:t
beauty of the ''gate passes Ike
dream, and the traveller finds Its stateI-
ness utterly reversed by the scene wnlch
| II encloses. Waste land, tumble-down
huts, sinuous ways; half paVed WIN
enormous blocks of stone, halt le1t IN
vawnino gaps a couple of feet deep,
| dirt poyertv, desolation through these
one struggles on until a second wall
stons the wav. It is still more majestic
and Rabylonian it is sixty feet high
and forty feet wide, and it divides the
Chinese from the Tartar city. On the
other side is a kind of circus without
benches. which is formed of gigantic
walls protecting, the principal gate, and
is verv like a spacious bear-pit. No
body is permitted 10 pass through the
central aperture except the emperor, SO
the traveller passes under the gate arch
at the side, and is generally instructed
nv his guide to ASCEND some steps to the
ton of the wall, from whence he car
, command a view of all Pekin. A won
derful sight, grand, melancholy, anc
suggestive. Three concentrlc cities
t divided from each other by inner walls
first the Tartar city, which IS the lar
| gest, and has upon it the warllke STAMP
of the conquering race; then the lmpe
| rial CITY, with the palaces OF the man
r darins. each consisting of nearly a nun
dred kiosks and finally the forbidden
= citv with its thousands of roofs IN I'm
| nerial yellow, and its Me-chan, th
i sacrosanctum of the celestial empire
e Forming the vast mysterious inelosur
v of the forbidden city are walls on who's
: SUBMITS four carriages might be drive
4 abreast the countless roofs OF tn
a mandarin's palaces are bright greer
" the domes of the temples are dark blue
j. there are great spaces paved with potte
V nv. and there are marble bridges. bu
r ali this splendor is set in frame-Wor
of crumbling, dusty ruin. Eyerytmn
W is extraordinary in this wonderful place
I which is an epitome of decay. Thebe'
Memphis. Carthage, Rome, are run
At which tell of violent vicissitude; Pekl
e. is a skeleton dropping into dust. III
N ravine-like streets are knee-deep III eVe1
sort of rubbish, the moat9, the canal
and the rivers are al, and always, cry
r. the formal parks, the once marvei0'
nonds. are turned to desert places. II
II nmphal arches stand side by side Wi
wretched tumble-down booths, su
" mounted bv a forest of little pole
+ whence paper "signs" dangle In Il
w. air and uniformity is lent to all by Il
e. thick laver of evil-smelling dust wh1'
It lies upon them, the same dust that
n ALWAYS whirling around, hurting t.
ed ewes and offending the nostrils. III
Sc great city, in which nothing is ever l
We 1aired and where it is penal to pt
nv down any thing, is dropping to piece
or and it is the opinion of M. DE Beauvo
A the French traveller, to whom we O.
I the best and most picturesque accou
SO of Pekin vet givento the western worl
! !" that in a century it will have been aba
ar- doned and have ceased to exist.
A poetic element reigns at Pek
he with all its dust and quaintness, ma
in ing one see the soul of that wonder1
fl verifcation in life, and on huge sea
ar of the designs on screens and pla
me with which every one is familiar. L
7 imperial city is a vast assemblage
ID. the turrets, the belfries, the ste
,ad bridges. the balconies, and
!, is kiosks which we have seen thu
the sand times in lacquer. But Il
INV are reached through the gates of
IAN tuous Victory, of Great Purity, OF
do Temples of Heaven, of Agriculture,
lin the Genius OF the Nlnds, OF Ghe Ge.
of the Lightning, and of the Br1i
is Mirror of the Mind. Every year
is emperor, arrayed in country costul
axe with a straw hat yard IN clrcumi
car ence (afterward hung up in the temp
is drives a golden plow-sharo through
res field. that the tracing of the furrow 4
and call down the blessing of Buddha VI
20 . the seed-time and the harvest. Ev
on six months the emperor burns NJ
vbo her of death-warrants in bronze
-ery ziers, ranged under roof OF dark
ore- porcelain. between curule chairs
ord mink marble, in front of which are {
ner- rons and pugs in the rarest CHI
of 1erched on columns of carved VIC
cad A little beyond the temple where tt
bev ceremonies take place there stal
ipht built upon the wall, magnlti'
akes observatory, 273years old. The glga
the bronze Instruments, curIously Wrou
for rest upon the outspread wings OF Il.
one dragons a celestial globe eight fee
mr. diameter shows all the stars know
1850, and visible at Pekin. Such Is