The Nome nugget., 1938-06-02
Cities of North China That
 Have Been Occupied by Nippon

be establi shed also in Nanking, the official ca pital 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.
 Pelpng was the focus of perhaps the most widespread international tension on Chinese record during the anti-fOreign Boxer uprising in l9OO, when troops of several na- tions, including the United States. were landed and marched inland to rescue all Peipings 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 $ the country's second largest city, being surpassed only by Shanghai Its geographic loca- tion brings it into contact with Jap anese-controlled Manchukuo on the northeast, semi-independent Tibetan provinces on the west, and Russian controlled Mongolan republics on the northwest The foreign embas- off af business firms in Peiping give it the greatest International importance north of tn e Yangtze river. As cen ter of the Hopei-Chahar council, it is a focus for the independence movement which has weakened ties between North China and the cen tral government at Ranking.
 Having lost the name of Picking, northern capital" in 1928 when Chlna's ministrative center was moved south to Nanking, 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 reinc arnations as seat of Chi mas government under such TO- mance-frei ghted names as Picking, Cambulac. and Purple Imperial City. Its Mandarin dialect, the "Parisian 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 south west of the city. Many foreigners make excursions from Peiping to this ancient many-arched stone bridge, one of the most pie turesque in northern China, which spans the m ouddy Yung-ting river.
 Marco Polo bridge was named by foreigners in honor of the Venetian adventurer who first described it-- albeit inac cCurately-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 twentyfour 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 Peipng with black stone" fuel. The treacherous Yung- ting river in Seventeenth century flood clipped off two arches. Now the bridge has only eleven stone arches, moss sy 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 cen ter of China's ancient civilization, the bridge played dramatic part in invasions. It still bears it's share of motor. caravan, and foot traffic.