Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 667

PEKING

603

About A.D. 1151, the fourth sovereign of the Kins transferred the Court thither, and named it the Central Residence. In 1215, it was captured by Genghis Khan. In 1264 Kublai Khan fixed his residence there, giving it the title of Chung-tu or Central Residence, the people at large generally calling it Shun t'ien-fu. In 1267 A.D., the city was transferred 3 li (one mile) to the North of its thien site, and it was then called Ta- tu-the 'Great Residence.' The old portion became what is now known as the 'Chinese city, and the terms Northern' and 'Southern' city, or more commonly nei-cheng (within the wall) and wai-cheng (without the wall), came into use. The native Emperors who succeeded the Mongol dynasty did not, however, continue to make Peking the seat of Government. The Court was shortly afterwards removed to Nanking, which was considered the chief city of the Empire until, in 1421, Yung Lo, the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, again held his Court at Peking, since which date it has remained the capital of China.

The present city of Peking is divided into two portions, the Northern or Tartar city and the Southern or Chinese. The former has been encroached upon by the Chinese, and the purely Manchu section of the capital is very limited indeed. The southern city is exclusively occupied by Chinese. The general shape of Peking may be roughly represented by a square placed upon an oblong, the former standing for the Tartar and the latter for the Chinese city. The whole of the capital is, of course, walled. The walls of the Tartar city are the strongest. They average 50 feet in height and 40 feet in width, and are buttressed at intervals of about sixty yards. The parapets are loop-holed and crenelated. They are faced on both sides with brick, the space between being filled with earth and concrete. Each of the gateways is surmounted by a three-storied pagoda. The walls of the Chinese city are about 30 feet in height, 25 feet thick at the base, and 15 feet wide on the terre plein. The total circumference of the walls round the two cities slightly exceeds 20 miles.

The Tartar city consists of three enclosures, one within the other, each surrounded by its own wall. The innermost, called Kin-ching or Forbidden City, contains the Imperial Palace and its surrounding buildings (partly destroyed by fire in 1923); the second is occupied by the several offices appertaining to the Government and by private residences of officials; while the outer consists of dwelling- houses, with shops in the chief avenues.

There is little direct foreign trade with Peking, but it is growing and the time cannot be far off when the city will be thrown open to trade.

In August, 1884, the city was brought into direct telegraphic communication with the rest of the world, by an overland line to Tientsin vid Tungchow. The Ministry of Communications has now its own wireless installation. The year 1899 witnessed two other innovations, which would have been regarded as impossible ten years previously, viz., the erection of large two-storied buildings on prominent sites for the Austrian Legation and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. These were breaks with immemorial tradition that the feng-shui must resent elevation in houses other than those of the immortal gods and the Son of Heaven. The railway line to Tientsin was opened in 1897. A further link between the two places was forged in 1922 by means of a wireless telephone system, the plant for which was installed for the Chinese Government by the China Electric Co.

Peking, though it suffered indescribably from the depredations of the Boxers, the Imperial troops, the awful ruffianism 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 many places of antiquarian, artistic historic interest are now accessible if the visitor sets about his object with due attention to national susceptibilities. Unfortunately, in Peking, as elsewhere in China, the monuments of the past are neglected, except perhaps those in the Forbidden City, and are fast crumbling into ruins.

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During 1902 the fortification of the Legation quarter was completed, the railway termini brought to the Ch'ien 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 most 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. There are