Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-03-04

with several European cities,
which were alternately raked by the
fire of foe and friend, proposing to
preserve their hollow-eyed n ghast-
ly ruins as a reminder of the shame
lof 1914 and the glory of four years
significant change which is taking
lpIace in ASIA" says a bulletin from
the National Geographic Society.
Roads taking the place of barriers;
communication instead of exclusion;
picturesque landmarks of the past
sacrificed to unromantic modernity-
these are the changes that are alter
ing the appearance of the Chinese
lcity and the life of it's people.
Nineteen years ago.. Yuan Shih Kai
demolished the city walls of Tientsin.
ALMOST Immediately the life of the
city changed, but the experiment was
soon repeated. Then came the
revolution and In many cities where
|Chinese and Manchus lived in contig-
|uous walled cities, the Tatar portion
was RACED to the ground when the
overthrow Of the Manchu dynasty
lcame.
Prominent among these cities whore
the Manchu or Tartar portion was
burned was the most beautiful city of
iChina, Hangchow. Between the
lChinese city and famous West Lake,
about whose beauties Chinese poets
IWere going into OBSTACLES of he footed
verse many years Homer told Of the
Walls of Troy, there was the Tartar
city.
when this was burned. the eye
sore of a ruined waste stood between
the Chinese and their beloved lake,
where pleasure boats swung lightly
at anchor or noiselessly traversed the
lplacid waters. and as a background to
this waste land a towering wall shut
off all view of their beauty spot.
There still remained the inner wall
(which had separated the Chinese and
Tartar cities and hence the outer wall
was useless. Progressive spirits not
only brought about the destruction OF
the wall that hid the lake but laid
out a modern city with wide ma
cadamized streets constructed OF the
material which lac once been wall.
"Rtckshas appeared in regions
where only sedan chairs could move
before and since one man a pull q
ricksha easier and faster than two
can carry a chair. life in Hangchow
began to speed up. Soon an auto
Iconnecting the lake front with the
railway station, were laid out.
This meant widening the narrow
lanes to modern thoroughfares and
the fronts of hundreds of shops had
Ito be cut away. Then anne the edtct
that whenever new building opera
ltions were started in any part of the
city the front wall of the struc-
ture should be moved back several
feet. This gave a cog wheel effect
where old and new structures alter
mated but the move was In the right
direction. The city which Marco
Polo had praised so highly becoming
modern.
"Hangchow Yves not alone IN tearing
down walls and building modern
roads on the site Of ancient barriers.
In a score of Chinese cities the an
Icient bricks, six times the size of our
own and the squared stone hat was
sometimes found. began to take or
NEW value and the wall became q
quarry for anyone who needed build
ing material.
''Nanking had one of the longest
city walls to be found anywhere and
the Tartar city there was very large.
Not long after the revolution. the Tar
ltar walls began to crumble before the
picks of pygmies who razed what
tgiants had raised and creaking wheel
lbarrows, laden with bricks and stone.