Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-05-13
'P0RTRAYSPEK1NG,
PICTURESQUE CITY
Writer Tells of Broad Ave-
nues Crossing Other Broad
Avenues, Well Constructed.

HSciiueS, wei CONSTRUCTED.
Peking, to which American marines
and the military forces of other
western nations have been rushing
10 defend their national interests.
threatened by Chinese civil war
rare, Is the subject of the following
communication to the National Geo
graphic Society from James Arthur
Muller:
AS one passes within the walls
OF Peking he expects 10 find, as in
other Chinese cities. the hammered
signs OF shopkeepers throwing gay
canoples across narrow, tortuous
huddled streets: but behold! broad
avenues three miles long, crossed by
Nner broad avenues three miles
ions, making squares as regular as
those of "a checkerboard.
Not n Chinese City.
! The visitor wonders whether the
builders of this city saw in prophetic
vision the streets of Chicago, Dem
yer and Philadelphia. Then he be-
gins to suspect that Picking is the
one spacious Chinese city, because
1t is not Chinese city at all, but
Tartar city. built by adventurous
barbarians of the north men who
lived in the saddle. upon steppes and
plains, whose feet were set in
large room.
length, breadth and regularity of the
streets. The traffic upon them is
equally unexpected. In the cities Of
southern China sedan-chairs edge
their way with difficulty through
the crowds of pedestrians and car
rying coolies, who jostle each other.
in the narrow lanes In Picking
every street is alive with beasts and
vehicles.
Down the smooth. tree-lined. ma
cadam- center roads autos cabs, rick
shaws. and bicycles speed past slow
| moving catafalques and crimson we'd
| ding professions. On each side, be
tween sidewalk and trees, along a
highway Of turf, go mule-mounted
| equestrians, soldiers on sturdy Man
! churian ponies. triplets of donkeys
/ hauling lumber brick, coal and crock
| cry; portly old gentlemen, straddling
| diminutive asses; blue-canopied PeE-
ing carts, and caravans of cameis out
of the north.
| Camels as Business Vehicles.
Imagine a city where camels go
up and down the streets upon legiti.
| mate business. not in circus paradei
The visitor strolls along Hatamer
street after breakfast. and there they
| are. on their knees, blinking in the
] morning sun-fine, shaggy, brown
| beasts, an occasional white one.
| rather, dirty white-among them,
chewing their cuds in leisure. The
pavement before the shops whittier
| they have carried merchandise has
| been their caravansary for the night.
| There are dozens upon dozens of
1 them lining the sidewalk, up the
| street and down.
| almost as fascinating S the cam
els are the carts of Picking, or rather
\ the little beasts which pull them
ponies. donkeys. mules, and monde
| script, elusive creatures that are
! neither horse, mule, nor ass. But
subtle. indistingushable mixtures.
| 'If streets and traffic, carts and
camels are unexpected. no less so are
! the buildings. The traveller who has
seen pictures of the majestic temples
| and palaces of Picking enters the
imposing south gate prepared for
| architectural raptures. But he finds
| the broad. straight highways of the
| city lined with insignificant, one
! story shops. or with equally insfs-
nificant gray, windowless, one-story
house walls, or long. unlovely,
| stretches of dull-red plaStered fence
| walls.
| Neither Skyline Nor Cornices.
1.-The streets of Picking have neither
| skyline nor cornices. Were it not for
! the fnuititudinous traffic upon them
| they would remind the traveller of
| of an American mining town. IN
| finitely extended. The trees which
| line the central roadways are all of
| such recent planting that this city OF
| the centuries suggests the latest Of
| spring of an energetic real estate
! agent.
| "As soon, however, as the traveller
enters gateway, through one of the
| gray or dingy brick-red walls, he
comes suddenly and Unexpectedly
| upon a palace, silent in the sun, yet
shouting aloud in the barbaric bril-
lance of its color-crimson columns.
| friezes of flashing gold on green.
Withdrawing roofs of respondent vel
/ low, all above a triple-terraced plat
1 form Of marble, white like snow.
Or it may be.a many -courted temple.
! where a hundred lamaS drone chants
| before an .inscrutable Buddha; Or a
| wooded park, where emperors once
! took. their pleasure, where century
| old cedars shade pathways and
pleasant lakes.
Shrines Nestle in Groves.
| "Shrines nestle in mulberry groves
and: hillocks are crowned by Budd-
hist TOPICS, from whose marble bases
one looks out over the roofs of the
city-miles and miles, it seems. OF
| gray roofs-and in the center of all
| a great splotch of imperial yellow.
| the once forbidden city. where
| dwelt the emperor, his sons and bis
daughters, his wives and his concu-
\ bines.
EVEN the foreigners in Picking
have fallen into this habit of sur
! rounding themselves with blank and
unexpressive walls: SO that behind
| such barriers are found not only tenn
pies and parks and palaces, but COL
| ieges and churches and legation
/ buildings"