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PEKING
fell to the Russians, who also sent out a column and seized the famous Summer Palace, thirteen miles distant. The capture of the City was formally celebrated by a visit of all the leading Ministers, Officers, and some of the troops to the Palace. For the first time in history foreigners were able to see the arcana of the Imperial Court. The Imperial Family had the day before the Relief escaped from the City and fled into Shan-si via the Northern passes, en route for Si-an-fu, where it remained till October, 1901.
Peking, though it suffered indescribably from the depredations of the Boxers, the Imperial troops, the awful ruthanism of Tung-fuh-shiang's barbarians from Kansu, to say nothing of the subsequent attentions of the Allied troops, is at present more attractive as an object of travel than before, for the simple reason that the City was cleansed by the foreign Powers, and that many places of antiquarian, artistic or historic interest are now accessible if the visitor sets about his object with due attention to national susceptibilities.
During 1902 the fortification of the Legation quarter was completed, the railway termini brought to the Chien Men in the Chinese City, and the reconstruction of the various legations was begun. These were slowly brought to completion, and extensive barracks connected with each for the accommodation of the Legation Guards. As all Chinese buildings in this section were removed the Legation quarter presents the appearance of a European settlement of about half a square mile in extent. In, or bordering upon this section, there are three good hotels, Hotel du Nord, and Hotel de Pekin, and in the Legation quarters a large Hotel has been built by the General Hotel des Wagon Lits Ld.; it is just near the memorable Water Gate leading to the railway station. In addition to Kierulff's there are now several other large stores, German, French, Italian or Chinese which sell all kinds of foreign goods. The Club House is much larger and more convenient than it was before; there is a Soldiers' Y.M.C.A, and a Catholic church for the Lagation Guards, and two hospitals,—St. Michael's and the Methodist Episcopal (John Ľ. Hopkins Memorial) which are provided with accommodation for both Chinese and European patients. There are four Banks, Hongkong and Shanghai, Russo-Chinese, Yokoliama Specie, and Deutch Asiatische, all of which do a flourishing business. The streets are being macadamized, and an Electric Light Company has been organized which will furnish light wherever wanted in the city. Reuter has established a permanent agency in Peking.
The various Missions have been rebuilt. The bungalows have all been exchanged for two-storied houses, the arrangement of which has been greatly altered, giving to the mission compounds a much more attractive appearance. The church in the Methodist Mission, at the rear of the Hotel du Nord, will accommodate 1,500 people. In this Mission there are hospitals for both women and men, a Girls' High School in which there are 200 pupils, and about the same number of students in the Peking Uni- versity. These buildings are all lit with acetylene, and heated by steam or hot air, while the houses are furnished with water from an artesian well in the com- pound. In connection with the London Mission, near the Von Ketteler Monument, is the Lockhart Medical College, established for medical study in North China, an institution for the erection of which the Empress Dowager contributed Tls. 10,000. A little north of this is the American Board Mission in connection with which there is a large girls' school and a very fine church with a seating capacity of about 1,000, The Presbyterian Mission is near the Llama and Confucian Temples in the north of the city, has hospitals for both men and women, and is furnished with water by a windmill from an artesian well. The South and East churches of the Roman Catholic Mission have not been rebuilt, but the North Cathedral has been greatly improved. The Mission for the Blind is on Kan Yu Hu t'ung not far from the London Mission, while the S.P.G. Mission is in the West city.
The question of high houses in Peking is for ever settled by the erection of a two- toried residence by Prince Su, and three large blocks of similar buildings for the Col- lege of Languages by the Government. The private telegraph line from Peking via Tientsin to Taku which was provided by Mr. Poulsen, the owner, before Peking was relieved, viz. from Tientsin to Taku and which was immediately extended to Peking on the relief of the Legations, was handed over to the Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration on Oct. 1st, 1905. The line was used by the Generals and Ministers in Peking 1900-1 for transmission to Taku of their dispatches to be forwarded thence by cable to all parts of the world, the Chinese line having been destroyed. On the Chinese rebuilding their line Mr. Poulsen converted his line into an inter-town telephone line, the first in China, and introduced the telephone system into Tientsin and Peking. When the Chinese Government starting their system Mr. Poulsen sold his line to them.
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