The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-08
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
Description of 1t Written Many
Years AQO,

| l nave thought an article on Chinese
walls may not be undressing to my
young readers of both sexes. 1t seems TO
be IN the very nature of a Chinaman to
have wall. He takes to it like young
! duck 10 the water. He seems to have an
! instructive propensity that way, like a hen
| 70 sit on eggs. In short, Chinaman has
wall on the brain; and he must and will
! have his favorite institution. He may, and
| even does, do without rice in some parts
! of the empire, but he cannot do without
| his wall. Walls of marble, walls of gran
| ite walls of sandstone, walls of mud,
vans of brick. Walls, walls, walls, meet
your saze until you are overwhelmed and
| bcwildeled by them
All the cities of China are surrounded by
| high strong walls, whose massive proper
lions stranger has no adequate idea Of
! until he sees Them. The walls surrounding
the City of Pekin are from twenty-five 10
! twenty-five miles in length and on an av-
! erage fifty feet high. This wall is sixty
/ six feet thick at the bottom and fifty four
/ at the top, and once in a few yards there
are immense buttresses TO give il still
I greater strength. Al every fifth buttress
4 the wall for the space OF l2S feet in length
( ia 256 feet in thickness. In several places
1 the foundation of this wall is of mar
Die, ana when The ground is uneven, i'm
mense quantities of cement, as durable
! neatly as granite, and about as hard have
! been USE! 20 level up the ground. The
main body OF this wall is made of bricks
each. twenty inches long, ten inches wide
and five inches thick. These bricks are
| burned very hard, and have precisely the
| appearance Of stone.
On the inside of this WALL as well on
others in other cities, there are esplanades
or sthrways. with gates to them, for as
ending them And over all the gateways
there are immense towers, as large as
| great clutches, and much higher, con-
structed of these great burned bricks. On
the top IF this immense wall there is
railing, both on the outside and inside,
coming no TO mans waist, which railing
itself is wall, thus giving a sense of Sc
curity to person walking on the top. The
outside railing is made into turrets for
the use of cannon in case of attack. The
entire top of the wall is covered with
| strong, burned brick, twenty inches
| square, resembling the tagging of our
| sidewalks in large cities only, as l have
said, these walks are ffty-four feet wide.
| There is no way of getting into the city
| only to go through this immense wall
| And wherever there is a gate for the pur-
| pose of getting through, there is another
| wall built inclosing a square space, COM
pelling all persons who go into the city
to go through two walls, by passages at
right angles to each other. The walls
are so immensely thick that these pass
ages through them, erched over with cut
stone, remind one exactly of our railroad
! tunnels in the United States. At each
| Of these great archways there is an enor
nous gate, made of strong timbers, every
| where much as ten inches thick and
covered on both sides with plates of iron,
like the sides of our warships. These gates
are shut early in the evening, generally
| before shutdown, and not allowed to be
opened during the night for any purpose.
They are fastened on the inside by means
of strong beams of timber.
| l have been somewhat particular in de-
| scribing this wall, because the general
| construction of all walls in China is sim
| liar to this one, although they are not
oil so high nor SO thick But there are
probably a thousand walled cities in
China, whose walls will average % feet
high and 20 feet thick, and another thous-
and whose walls may be somewhat less
Then there is the great Tartar wall, a
little north of Pekin, 1900 miles long and
| older than the Christian era, thicker and
higher than any of the rest There are
said to be 1.5o0 prefectural cities in China
| All these are surrounded by walls built
by the government, besides the great num-
| Der OF cites whose walls are made at the
|
And when we have spoken of the walls
surrounding the cities, we have by no
means done with the subject For ex-
ample, in Pekin, inside the inciosing wall
there is another of miles in extent, sur
rounding what is called the Imperial
! City. Then, again, inside of this. is an
| other immense wall, surrounding what is
called the Prohibited City. Within this
! inner inclosure is the residence of the
| Emperor and all he ~
nected with royalty. And so the alta
| and Temple of Heaven are surrounded bv
TWO concentric walls of great extent and
| magnitude, which must be passed by
means of immense gates.
Ihen there is the great wall covered
| with dry thorn bush surrounding what
| Is calied the Place of Punishment, where
criminals are beheaded and their heads
| exposed in cages for terror to eyildoers.
and where other criminals are crucified
and yet others starved to death, amid
the most piteous meanings and insane
rawlings for food.
Again, the Hall of Literary Exannina-
! ton, where 900 men compete for liter
| airy degrees, and where the longest nurse
Is more successful than the hardest udy.
| is surrounded by another wall AMI on
tered by gates. Then all places of iiola-
| trous worship, and they are legion. in
these great cities are surrounded bv hish
walls.
| The old city of Marking on the south
bank of the Yang-tse Kang, is surround
ed by wall eighteen miles long The CITY
| OF lien Tsin, in the northern part of
China, has a wall fifteen or sixteen
miles in length. The city of Yoo-Chow
with one side exposed to the river Min
Is surrounded by a high wall Wherever
stone can be had it is used for thee
structures. The city of Ranchack. also
on the south side of the Yang-tse. IA sur
| rounded by wall running over the top
CT mountain a thouaan1 feet high. l
also saw, while ascelding the Yang-tse.
a monstrous wall surrounding an area on
the top OF mountain where the Chinese
of that region took their wives and child
rem for safety during the terrible rebel
lion that swept over great part of China
a few years ago.
Then in thousands and tens Of thou
Sands of instances in China a high wall
is built right before the door of a private
dwelling to ward off spirits of ancs stors.
who are SUPP ose1 to be blind, and oblig-
ed to move in straight lines, and who
will. consequently stumble against the
walls when they come TO them, and give
up the pursuit. Then, In country places,
YOU will see a straight wall running in
the field without. of course inciosiug
anything, but set ming to be built as be-
fore remarked, fr;m an inna.e propensity
to make wall like that of a hen to sit
on GIGS. After giving a good deal of At