Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-04-12
CAPITAL OF CHINA.
SOME FACTS REGARDING THE
CITY OF PEkIN.

The Approaches to the City-lts Walls and
Towers-lts Streets Without Pavements, Mud
Prevailing in Winter and Dust in Summer
The Monastery of Tartar Monks Treatment
of White Vistors-The "Civil Service" Of
the Heathens Legation Quarters.
Pekin, the capital OF China and the
center OF the excitement at present, is
a city OF more than million inhabit-
ants, located eighty miles in and from
the seaport of Tien Tsin. To reach
Pekin the traveller disembarks at Tien
Tsin and is offered the choice of three
routes. He may travel the eighty
miles of road either on pony back or
in cart, or he may be rowed up the
river in Chinese boat, the distance
by water being 12O miles.
Approaching Pekin, he sees nothing
at first but the great wall entirely sur
rounding the city and looming up
like a mount ain on the sandy alluvial
plain on which the city is built. At
intervals along the course of the wall
great towers rise to the height OF more
than hundred feet, with gates be-
meath them. In the whole circumfer-
ence OF the wall CT the outer city there
are sixteen gates with corresponding
number of towers.
Pekin consists of four complete and
separate cities, each within walls OF
its own. The walls of the outer or
Chinese city are thirty feet in height
and vary in thickness from thirty feet
at the bottom to fifteen feet at the
top. Next is the inner or Tartar city,
with walls fifty feet high and from
sixty to forty feet in thickness. Still
within, like the third in series OF
Chinese nest OF eggs, is the imperial
city, and at the center of all is the
Forbidden city, which may be entered
only by members of the royal family.
Parts of some Of the walls still
standing are more than thousand
years old, and Pekin has been the site
of city since long before the Chris
tian era. Some idea of the conditions
within the walls may be gained from
the fact that, with population of at
least million, there is no system of
sewers in the city, and few, if any,
necessary pools or drains. Sewage,
garbage and trash of all kinds are
simply dumped or poured into the
streets, which are innocent even of q
suspicion of pavement. After rain
the mud on the principal streets of
Pekin is often three feet deep. In
dry weather the dust is equally thick,
and the terrors of dust-storm in the
Chinese capital are said to be at least
equal to those OF the mud.
In Pekin even more than elsewhere
in China, and even up to the present
day, the foreigner, particularly if he
be white man. is looked upon as a
devil. 1t is said to be dangerous for a
white traveller to walk through the
streets. The Pekinese have pleasant
way OF dropping bricks and other
heavy articles upon the heads of the
"white DEVILS" as they pass below the
low roofs of their filthy houses, and
more than one has gone out from his
hotel on sightseeing tour never to be
seen or heard of again. In the
swarming, Shiny alleys and streets of
Pekin are thousand hidden corners
to enter which is as good as death.
Because of the fact that the streets
of Pekin are not paved and are filled
with ruts and deep puddles OF filth no
vehicle with springs can live more
than few days unbroken. A species
OF enormously heavy and clumsy cart
drawn by a mule is the usual and, in
fact, only method of conveyance.
Most of the show places OF the city
are absolutely forbidden to foreigners,
and, of course, not even the most ex.
alted Of visitors is ever allowed to en-.
ter the royal or forbidden city.
One of the most interesting of the
sights of the city is the great monas-
terry OF Tartar monks. Here, in o
!, city of their own, more than 1000
half naked and savage disciples of
: Buddha live, owning no allegiance
even to the supreme authority of the
} Chinese Empire and living life
which is described as most revolving.
The chief treasure of the monastery is
an enormous gilt image Of Buddha, in
the effort to see which many white
travellers have risked their lives. The
only way in which admission to the
temple can be gained is by bribing
one of the monks to open the doors,
and often it is found much more diff.
ficult to get out than it was to force
an entrance. Few of the travellers
who have penetrated to the shrine of
Buddha have gotten away without
leaving all their money and other
property behind them, and often they
have been glad enough to get away
alive.
As soon as white man appears on
the streets of Pekin he is surrounded
by swarming mass of beggars and
other pedestrians. They poke their
filthy fingers into his face, search his
l., pockets and tear his clothing, all the
! while saluting him with the choicest
of Chinese insults. If he stand per-