Living in Hsi-an Fu is extremely cheap, flour being sold at eighteen to 
twenty cash per catty, or about a half-penny a pound. Vegetables are sold at 
correspondingly low rates, and even meat is less expensive than in most places 
further north. Oranges, pommeloes, pears, persimmons, and grapes are 
particularly abundant, though only the last three are actually grown in the 
district. The two first, together with sugar-cane, bamboo-shoots, and 
innumerable dried luxuries—cuttlefish, mushrooms, shrimps, and sharksfins— 
are imported at comparatively low prices from the south-east and south-west. 
But in the present chapter it is proposed to deal, not so much with the 
commercial importance of Hsi-an, as with the many interesting relics which 
are to be found in the neighbourhood, and which bear witness to the former 
glory and prosperity of the ancient capital. A thorough examination of these 
would demand months, at least, of patient research; an adequate description 
would fill several volumes; so that we must content ourselves with making 
mention of such objects of archzological interest as were brought to our 
notice, and setting down any legends or stories about them which came to our 
ears. 
The visitor to Hsi-an, as he travels over the rolling plain from no matter 
what direction, cannot fail to notice numerous mounds of unusual shape dotted 
about everywhere like immense molehills, often attaining a height of at least 
100 feet, and standing on bases of very considerable area. So remarkable are 
they that he will instinctively seek information concerning them, and will 
learn that they are the tombs of kings and emperors, and their wives, and of 
scholars and sages notable in their day. But few indeed have anything in the 
way of tombstone or epitaph to tell who sleeps beneath the tons of yellow 
earth ; though, concerning some, fantastic legends still linger in the minds of 
the people. Perhaps the best known of the many hundred mounds that go to 
make the Hsi-an plain a veritable Royal Cemetery, is the one that marks the 
burial place of Shih Huang-ti, of the Chin dynasty, the builder of the Great 
Wall. This mound is situated some twelve or fifteen miles to the east of 
Hsi-an and close to the small town of Lin-t’ung Hsien, famous for the hot 
springs already described. This mound differs from the others in resembling 
a bell-tent, much depressed, instead of a camel’s hump, and in _ being 
surmounted by a monument. It rises toa height of about thirty feet, and is 
said to contain vast treasure. The story goes that extraordinary precautions 
were taken to prevent the rifling of the tomb; special mechanism was devised 
to secure the vault, and the workmen who constructed it were buried inside. 
Shih Huang-ti (”é Prince Ch’éng) was hated by the literati of his age because 
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