The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-07
Copyright. 1900, by C. NJ. Walker.


The parade of the allied forces
through the sacred Forbidden City of
the Chinese on Aug. Is, was a pageant
which will go down in history as one
of the great spectacles of the world.
1t is not likely that any person living
will see such a procession again. The
famous city, the Holy of Holes, from
whose precincts all Chinese are pro
hibited, but to which they look for i'm
pulse and direction, has thus for the
first time been desecrated by the pro-
fame feet of China's conquerors.
Chinese pride has been humbIed and
it is to be hoped that the arrogant and
stiff-necked Empress Tsian, who for a
second time has been compelled to flee
from her palaces to escape the aveng-
ing armies of civilization, has been
taught a lesson which will last her
the balance of her life.
The northern city of Manchu, part
of the Chinese capital, consists of three
enclosures, one within the other, but
each surrounded by its own wall. The
innermost or Forbidden City, through
which the allies marched, is the en-
closure which surrounds the imperial
residences of the Chinese emperor and
includes the great national library of
China, together with a number of
government Offices.
The Chinese emperor is called by his
people THE Solitary Man. because
he is the only man who dwells within
the walls of this SacreS city. Princes
and high officials may come and go
to audiences, but the emperor alone
remains. The only other persons al
lowed within the city are the en-
presses, the members of the imperial
harem and the eunuchs, 5000 of whom
are retained as the servants of the
royal household Death is the certain
penalty for any man found within its
mysterious precincts, and the exact ma
ture of the doom OF the few who have
surreptitiously Ventured there has
never been known.
Massive Guardianship of the Walls.
This inner city is called by the Chi
nese the ''Kin-Cheng," or Prohibited
City. 1t is about two miles in circum-
ference and surrounded by a wall al
most as massive as those around the
outside Tartar City itself. This sur
waters of a moat which surrounds the
entire city to a height of nearly fifty
feet. 1t is faced with red glazed brick
and the top of the wall is covered with
the royal yellow porcelain tile which
from distance glistens brilliantly in
the sunshine.
The city is entered through gates
on each of the four sides over bridges
which cross the surrounding poat- Be
fore each gate is an open area for the
gathering of troops and the forming of
state professions. Around each of
these areas are buildings and barracks
for the accommodation of the guards
who defend the approach to China's
Dragon Throne Watch towers at
each corner of the wall and over each
of the gateways furnish points of
view from which any suspicious move
mentS outside may be detected. The
interior of the Forbidden City is made
up of a succession of court yards and
apartments which in their massiveness
and ornate and profuse decoration far
exceed anything to be found elsewhere
in China.
According TO the Chinese themselves.
1t is the city of gold and silver. To
their Oriental vision, the paVementS of
aces to gilded palaces where gold and
silver pillars uphold GOLD and silver
roofs, and the fortunate inhabitants
pluck flowers growing in gold and sill
yer vases or play with gold and silver
fishes swimming in crystal globes.
Their imaginations comprehend moth
ing which they do not believe exists
somewhere in the imperial palaces OF
their em9eror.
Viewed from the great square or open
place before the Da Using Nun or
Great Pure Gate, which is the outer
barrier and extreme southern entrance
to the imperial palaces, the Forbidden
City stretches away to the north with
a succession of tall palace buildings
with pagoda roofs supported by i'm
mense pillars, heavily lacquered with
red enamel. covered with roofs of diff
ferent colOred porcelain tile, yellow.
green and deep red. The variegated
colOrS of these roofs -glistening through
the beautiful trees which abound in the
royal city make I'D a scene of archi-
tectural and arboreaI beauty abso-
lutely uneQualed, while far in the dis
{ lance, Just back of the northern gate
: of the city. rises the beautiful arti-
fetal mound covered with shrineS and
pavilions known as the Mel Shan or
Coal Hill. The Great Pure Gate is a
low, ugly building with three doors
built of heavy oak timbers and COW
cred with sheets of iron. 1t irnDresses
one as a, shabby looking affair for the
outer entrance to such renowned en-
closure as the famous Mai Kung OF
city of the royal palaces. It's appear
ance, however, is accounted for by the
Chinese principle that interior magnifi-
cence should not be visible or suggest
ed in external surroundings.
In the Second Enclosure.
Passing through this gate another
large area stretches out before a