Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- CHAPTER XXIII
- CHAPTER XXIV
- CHAPTER XXV
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- CHAPTER XXIII
- CHAPTER XXIV
- CHAPTER XXV
Summary
Peking is a twin city: the Tartar portion on the north, a square, three miles each side: the Chinese city on the south, an oblong, nearly five miles by two. Originally it must have been a splendid city, lying as it does on a gentle slope, and built upon a most enlightened plan. It is a city of parallelograms, with spacious streets cutting each other at right angles. It has an abundant and never-failing water supply from the western hills, large lakes, a canal running through the city, and a good system of drainage. Notwithstanding its present dust, dirt, dilapidation, and cesspools, it might be made one of the most beautiful capitals. Were due advantage taken of the several rivers which rise in the semicircle of hills on the north-west, avenues of trees might shade each side of the thoroughfares, and there might be running streams on both sides of the streets.
It is a most interesting city still, with its elegant Prospect Hill in the centre, adorned with clumps of shady trees and numerous arbours. The imperial palaces, the palatial residences, the handsome legations, the altar to the Most High God, on which, every year at the winter solstice, a red heifer, without blemish and without spot, on whose neck the yoke has never passed, is most devoutly offered as a whole burnt offering—the most ancient and continuously offered religious rite that has ever existed in the world—all impress the traveller.
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- Information
- Old Highways in China , pp. 218 - 227Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1884