40 SIAN-FU, THE MAGNIFICENT 



remarkable cities in China. Formerly its bounds 

 extended thirty li northwards to the Wei River, 

 a tributary of the Hwang-ho, and ten 11 to the 

 south ; but the present city, a paltry five or six 

 hundred years old, has contracted within narrower 

 limits and holds half a million or so inhabitants. 

 The walls, about two and a quarter by one and a 

 quarter miles in circumference, and gate towers 

 will, in preservation and magnificence, vie with any 

 in the kingdom outside Peking. They protected 

 the city for many years during the great Moham- 

 medan rebellion. From 1868 to 1870 troops lay 

 thick around and prevented almost any outside 

 intercourse ; but they had no firearms and the 

 walls defied them. 



Looking on the city from their eminence one 

 sees the Bell and Drum Towers, those imposing 

 excrescences of every large city, emerging from a 

 waving and leafy forest. Down in the narrow 

 dirty streets the trees are gone and no hint of 

 green relieves the eye, for they all, like the women, 

 are in inner courts and yards. 



Its commanding position, for it dominates the 

 great arteries which keep up communication with 

 the west, made it the capital of the Empire in 

 ancient times. Indeed, its central position, apart 

 from the lack of railways, admirably adapts it for 

 such an honour. For more than two thousand 

 years, with some intervals, many of the most 

 powerful rulers of China resided here, or in the 

 immediate vicinity. It still retains something of 

 its ancient grandeur. The Mohammedans who 

 now live there are not so numerous since the 

 rebellion, nor have they the same power, living 



