The Daily Missoulian., 1913-02-03

Peking, proudly and of a right.
claims three premier distinctions. 1t
is Chna's great capital and metropO-
lis, the most enhancing city in the
far east and one of the worlds really
wonderful cities. Peking is to the
orient what Rome is to Europe. Wipe
out all of China and Pekng would
still be Peking. But any act of God
or man dealt to raze Peking would
be blow on China's very heart If
one had to choose between a visit to
Peking, coursing some aeropIane
route which gave no glimpse of the
! land below, and an extended tour of
the rest of the country with Peking
left out, it will be the voyager who
speeds his course straight to the
basin of the Pei-ho river where the
hands Of Chinese, Tartars, Mongols
and Manchus have modele the Eter-
nal city of the Celestial empire
| Peiching. meaning northern capital,
is the derivation of the modern name
of Peking. Situated less than 100
miles below the Monaghan border, it
| fell into the hands of the khitan Tar
tars in 9S6 A. D., being given the
| name of Marking, or southern capital
In the year of lilo or thereabouts the
! Chinese retook it because it's original
dispoilers were fighting more i'm
portant battles far to the north. The
Chinese reduced the place to the
grade of "fu'' or first class town, and
so it languished until captured in 115l
by the Kin Tartars, who gave it the
designation of central capital, the
implication being that another i'm
portant base, to be called southern
| capital, was to be still further south
on Chinese soil In 1910 the great
Mongol king, Genghis Khan. drove out
the boastful kins. But it did not be-
come the ravishers official base and
was again merely large city until
the reight of his successor, Kublai
Khan, even greater than Genghis.
Kublai Khan, in 1885, made what is
now Pclling his main capital, the
greatest distinction accorded it up to
that time. Kublai rebuilt the place.
He was the man who made it great
for all time, and most of the temples,
arches and other interesting things
that one sees there were either built
by him or put up later by later gem
be venerated forever. Under kublai
the city became famous far and wide
as fenking, or great court" Again it
was known as Cambaluc, and ancient
Chinese writings rebound with poetic
and enthusiastic tributes and descrip-
tions. The successors of Kublai Khan
decided to move the capital quite bit
farther south in order to prevent raids
from rowing northerners, and in so
doing established Marking, or south
ern capital, as it is still called. Here
the Mings, the very last Chinese dy-
nasty, flourished after the rule of the
khans had died out. The Emperor
Yung-lo moved his capital back to the
seat of the great kublai Khan early
in the fifteenth century. The name
was made Peiching, northern capital.
and later twisted to Pe-king, north
court. So it has remained from that
day to this.
Peking is reached by two main
routes. A trip over the Peking-
HankoW railway, a Franco Belgian
concern, from the last named city to
the capital gives good general view
of the Chinese interior. The other
way is to travel three days by boat
from Shanghai to Tientsin and then
go so miles on the Peking- Eientsin
railway. Tientsin itself is the clean