The Coolidge examiner., 1937-09-16
Hokey-Pokey of Pepng.
Cities Of North China Thdt
Hove Been Occupied by Nippon

be established also in Marking, the
official capital of the central gov
ernment. Such an arrangement has
been adopted by the United States.
which retains an embassy in Peip-
ing guarded by detachment of
United States Marines. Other for
eign embassies with armed guards
are the British, French, Italian and
Japanese.
Peiping the Focus of Affairs.
Peiping was the focus of perhaps
the most widespread international
tension on Chinese record during
the anti-foreign Boxer uprising in
1900. when troops of several ma
tions, including the United States.
were landed and marched inland TO
rescue all Peiping's foreign resi-
dents, who had been besieged for
two months in the British embassy.
AS commercial and cultural mis-
tress of China's northern plain.
Peiping is the country's second
largest city. being surpassed only
by Shanghai. It's geographic loca
ton brings it into contact with Jap
anese-controlled Manchukuo on the
northeast, semi-independent Tibetan
provinces on the west, and Russian
controlled Mongolian republics on
the northwest. The foreign embas-
sizes and branch offices Of foreign
business firms in Peiping give il the
greatest international importance
north Of the Yangtze river. AS GEN.
ter of the Hopei-Chahar council. it
is a focus for the independence
movement which has weakened ties
between North China and the CEN
trail government at Nanking.
Having lost the name of Peking.
northern capital" in 1923 when
China's administrative center was
moved south to Marking, Peiping
now finds its present title, "city of
northern peace" threatened
In national affairs Peiping is a
stronghold of tradition. Contrasting
with the present Chinese capital,
the northern metropolis has had
many reincarnations as seat of Chi
mas government under such ro-
mance-freighted names as Peking,
Cambulac, and Purple Imperial
City. Its Mandarin dialect, the
Partisan French" of Chinese
speech, comes closer than any other
to being generally understood
throughout the nation.
Famous Marco Polo Bridge.
When the boom and rattle of
heavy guns and rifles disturbed the
calm of Peiping recently, newspa-
per men sent back word that the
first clashes were in the neighbor-
hood of the Marco Polo bridge, nine
miles southwest of the city. Many
foreigners make excursions from
Peiping to this ancient many-arched
stone bridge, one of the most pic
turesque in northern China, which
spans the muddy Yung-ting river.
Marco Polo bridge was named by
foreigners in honor of the Venetian
adventurer who first described it
albeit inaccurately-to the western
world when he came to the Orient to
call upon the fabulous Kublai Khan.
The Chinese call it Lu Kou Chiao.
Marco Polo praised the magnificent
solid stone span of twenty-four
arches on almost the same page
with such Chinese novelties as beau
ty contests, daily baths, and black
rock which was burned as a cheap
substitute for wood. Europeans
found the twenty-four arches the
most credible part of the story. but
it was actually the one inaccuracy.
The arches numbered no more than
thirteen, but countless loads of coal
passed over them from western
mines to supply Peiping with black
stone" fuel. The treacherous Yung-
ting river in Seventeenth-c
flood clipped off two arches. Now
the bridge has only eleven stone
arches, mossy with age.
The Marco Polo bridge has PLAYED
significant role in the history of
Peiping, to which it was once the
main portal from the southwest. For
centuries, when Peiping was the
political as well as the cultural GEN.
ter of China's ancient civilization,
the bridge played a dramatic part in
invasions. 1t still bears its share of
motor, caravan, and foot traffic.