399
Description of Pekin. From Du Halde's China 1735.
Pekin or Chun Tien You is the Capital of the province of Pe-iche-le and is the ordinary residence of the Emperor and seat of the central government.
It is situated in a very fertile plain, about twenty leagues from the great wall.
The Imperial residence used to be at Nankin which signifies "Court of the South", it was transported to Pekin (translated Court of the North) in order to bring the seat of government and Head Quarters of the Military Forces into the Northern Provinces, these being continually harassed by the incursions of the restless and warlike Tartars.
The city itself is of a square form and consists of two divisions—that which contains the Emperor's palace is called "Sin Ichin" or new town, it is also termed the Tartar town, because the houses in it are occupied by the Tartars belonging to the Imperial Establishment.
The other division is termed "Lao Ichin" or old town and is inhabited almost exclusively by Chinese, these latter were driven from the new town at the time of the Tartar conquest, and many of them obliged to leave the country entirely, as the Tartars not only took possession of the whole of the new town, which was built about the year 1400, in the reign of the Emperor Yung-lo; but they also appropriated the whole of the land with the towns situated upon it within a certain radius of the City.
The Conquerors distributed these domains among their followers, granting them at the same time perpetual...