Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-05-23
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society

Peking. to which American Ma
rines and the military forces of 9TH
err western nations have been rush
iny 10 defend their national inter-
ests. threatened by Chinese civil war
fare. 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 to find, as in other
Chinese cities. the hammered signs of
shopkeepers throwing gay canopies
across narrow. tortuous. huddled
streets: but behold! broad
three miles long. crossed by other
broad three miles long,
making square as regular as those
of a checkerboard.
More Tatar Than Chinese
The 'isitor wonders whether the
builders of this city saw in prophetic
vision the stree of Chicago, Denver.
and Philadelphia. Then he begins to
suspect that Picking is the one spa
cious Chinese city because it is not
a Chinese city al all, but a Tatar
city, built by adventurous barbarians
of the north, men who lived in h
saddle, upon steppesN and plains,
whose feet were set in a large room.
Wonder does not stop with h
length, breadth, and regularity of
the streets. The traffic upon them Is
equally unexpected. In the cities of
South China, sedan-chairs edge their
way with difficulty through h
crowds of pedestrians and carrying
coolies, who jostle each other in the
narrow lanes. In Picking every street
is alive with beasts and vehicles.
Camels. Mules and Autos
Down the smooth, tree-lined, ma
cadam-center roads autos, cabs,
rickshaws. and bicycles speed past
slow-moving catafalques and GRIM
son wedding professions. On each
side, between sidewalk and trees,
along a highway of turf, go mule
mounted equestrians, soldiers on
sturdy Manchurian ponies, triplets
of donkeys hauling lumber, brick,
coal, and crockery, portly old gen.
tlemen straddling diminutive asses.
blue-canopied Picking carts, and car
avans of camels out of the north.
Imagine a city where camels go
UP and down the streets upon legi-
innate business, not in a circus Va
rade! The visitor strolls along Hata-
men street after breakfast. and there
they are, on knees, blinking in the
morning sun-fne, shaggy. brown
DedSIS, all OCCdSlOIldl WllltC IA
rather dirty white-among them,
chewing their cuds in leisure. The
pavement before the shops whittier
they have carried merchandise a
been their caravansary for h night.
There are dozen upon dozen OF them
lining the sidewalk. up the street
and down.
almost as fascinating as the
camels are the carts of Picking. or
rather the little beasts which pull
them-ponies, donkeys. mules, and
nondescript. elusive creatures that
are neither horse, mule, nor ass, but
subtle, indistinguishable mixtures.
Building Also Unexpected
"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
tiers the imposing South Gate pre-
pared for architectural r%aptures. But
he finds the broad, straight high
ways of the city lined with insight
ficant one-story shops or equally
insignificant gray, windowless, one
story house walls, or long. unloveiy.
stretches of dull-red plastered fence
walls.
1.-THE streets Picking have neither
skyline nor cornices. Were 1t not for
the multitudinous traffic upon them.
they would remind the traveller of
the SPRAYING, God~-forsaken streets
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
offspring of an energetic real estate
agent.
Shrines and Palaces
"As soon, however, as the traveller
enters a gateway, through n OF
the gray or dingy brick red walls. he
comes suddenly and unexpectedly
upon a pa e. silent in the sun, yet
shouting aloud in the barbaric bril-
lance of it's color-crimson columns,
friezes of flashing gold on green.
wide faring roofs or respondent vel
low, all above a triple-terraced plat
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,
Id cedars shade pathways and pleas
ant lakes. Shrines nestle in null
berry groves and hillocks are crown
ed by Buddhist TOPICS, from whose
marble bases one looks out over the
roofs of the city-miles and miles, IL
seems, of gray roofs-and in the CEN
| ter of all a great splotch of imperial
| yellow. the once forbidden city,
| where dwelt the emperor. his sons
and his daughters, his wives and his
concubines.
Even the foreigners in Picking
have fallen into this habit CT sur
rounding themselves with blank ard
| INEXPENSIVE walls: SO that behind
such barriers are found not only
| temples and parks and palaces, but
| colleges and churches and legation
| buildings"