The Washington times., 1894-08-19
WALLED CITIES OF CHINA.
Mammoth Monuments to the Labor OF
Thousands of CeIestiaIs.

| Mammoth Monuments to the Labor OF
Thousands of CelestiaIs.
Nanking is the biggest walled city in the
world. and it is one of the most wonderful
cities of history. 1t was more than 600 years
old when Christ was baby, and its municipal
| hair was gray with the age OF 200 odd years
| when Mohammed first saw the light Of day.
| The present wall which surrounds it was
built about 100 years before Columbus sailed
| out from Spain to find passage to trade with
| its people, and it has several times been the
| Capital OF the great Chinese empire 1t lies
in the interior not far from the Yangste Kiang
River, about 200 miles away from the sea-
coast, and the viceroy, who now makes
it his capital, has more power than
President Cleveland, and he gov
erns nearly twice as many people
as there are in the whole United States. He
has under him cities of vast extent. the names
OF which are unknown to the average Ameri-
can, and his income AMOUNTS to millions. He
spends vast sums in his arsenals powder
works, and naval schools and he directs
from this point machinery OF government
which, though by no means as pure. has az
many ramiflcations and offices as that of our
Capital at Washington. He has here the big
examinations which test the learning of tens
OF thousands of Chinese students every three
years, and his people are so noted for their
ability and culture that Nanking has been
called the Athens of China
How snail / describe it? These Chinese
cities are so different from anything in Amer
lea that L almost despair of giving good
idea OF them. In the first place, Marking is
a;walled city. All of the big cities in China
are surrounded by walls ranging in size from
forty to seventy feet high, and so thick that
two two-horse wagons could be driven side
by side upon the paved roads which form
their tops. and the wheels of the wagons
4 II. y. 4 -
upon the walls are guard-houses and bar
racks which rise one and two stories above
the walls.
The walls are entered by great tunnel-liks
gates with arched roofs, and the doors 10
these are Of heavy planks and timbers bound
with sheets OF iron riveted on with bolts.
These are closed during the night. and the
man who arrives after dark has TO wait till
morning among the beggar huts of the out
side. 1t was late In the afternoon when
found myself with about hundred Chinese
passengers in the rude ferry-boat which takes
the freight from the river steamers TO the
shore at the landing for Nanking and mar
rowly escaped spending night out OF doors.
| was held for some time by a big Chinese
official because / had not a passport from
Peking. and when my servant had gotten
our donkeys and had loaded up two Chinese
coolies with our baggage, the sun was low in
the horizon and saw a blind Mohammedan
his prayers as it went down. We had yet
five miles 10 go before reaching the city, but
we made the gates and got III before dark.
During the journey, with the prospect OF
lodging in vile Chinese inn before me, I
thought OF the possibility of climbing the
wall, but as came closer to it l realized the
futility OF such an attempt 1t would
be almost as easy to crawl up the sides
of the Washington monument. Ihs
wall rose straight upward from wide
moat to the height OF an eight-story house,
and the only broken spaces were the cuts
formed by their creneliated tops. Had one of
the soldiers on guard thrown me down rope
ladder l would have feared the risk to climb,
and as l examined it l wondered at the ex-
pense of its building. We often hear OF ths
vast sums spent upon the great Chinese wall.
1t was about 500 miles long, and it is larger
tnan that about Marking. These city walls OF
China have eaten up vast deal more money.
There are in the empire more than 1000
walled cities, and every place 1 have stopped
in my tour up the Yangste has these massive
battlements about it.
The materials used are stone and large
burnt bricks of buish-gray color. These
bricks are each about fifteen inches long. five
inches wide and three inches thick. They
are put together in solid masonry in the
shape of two walls running parallel with
each other and the space between them ID
filed in with earth and stones. This Is
stamped down, and upon its top paved
roadway is made. upon which the guards
walk and upon which in many places are old
cannon and near them piles of stones ready
to be thrown down upon the enemy. The
length OF these walls Is much greater than
is necessary to inclose the cities. l have
seen none less than ten miles long, and
this wall OF Nanking is thirty-two miles
in length. The City of Nanking, which is
bigger than st. Louis, occupies only part
OF the inclosure. and the wall runs up and
down over a rolling country, taking in small
farms and market gardens. many of which
stand upon the site of the greater Marking OF
the past. The distance across the lnclosure
from one wall to the other is more than eight
miles, and during any other time than an en-
position or convention period you could
crowd all of the people OF Chicago inside
these walls an / have room TO spare. mile
of such wall must cost considerably more than
a mile of railroad, and in these 1000 walled
cities it is safe 10 say there is something ike
%. 900 miles of fortiieations, or enough to
have covered China with railroads.-Frank G.
Carpenter in the Chicago Herald.