CHINA. 



375 



five degrees of latitude, and seventy of longitude, 

 and covering an area of upwards of 3,000,000 square 

 miles. The highest census of its population is 

 that given in 1812, namely, 361,279,897. This is 

 generally considered to be much exaggerated ; yet 

 on comparing all accounts, it may be pretty safely 

 calculated, that the Chinese empire contains within 

 its bounds at least 300,000,000 human beings. 



The cities of China are divided into classes, and 

 the distinction is nicely and precisely marked by 

 the last syllable of their names, which is in fact a 

 distinct monosyllabic word, indicating their size, 

 rank, and municipal jurisdiction or dependence. 

 These monosyllables, one or the other of which is 

 found at the name of every city, are/t2 orfuu, cheu, 

 and hien. Fd denotes a city of the first class, having 

 under its jurisdiction a certain number of cities of 

 the two inferior classes. Cheu denotes a city of 

 the second class, subject to the jurisdiction of its 

 Fu ; and Hien, a city of the third class, subordinate 

 to its Cheu, as well as under the jurisdiction of its 

 FH. The study of geography might be considera- 

 bly facilitated if this practice of the Chinese were 

 general, and every nation, by a simple affix to the 

 names of their cities and towns, would thus explain 

 at one glance their relative rank or importance. 

 According to Father Le Comte, there were in his 

 time more than 160 cities of the first class, 270 

 cities of the second class, and upwards of 1200 of 

 the third, besides a number of walled towns not 

 included in any of these classes. The cities of 

 China are formed on a regular plan, which is square, 

 whenever the situation and nature of the ground 

 will admit. They are all enclosed by high walls, 

 with large gates of more strength than beauty. 

 Towers, which vary in elevation, but which are 

 sometimes eight or nine stories high, and in form 

 sometimes round, but more commonly hexagonal 

 or octagonal, are built at regular distances; and, 

 when practicable, a wide ditch, filled with water, 

 surrounds the whole. The streets are in straight 

 lines ; the principal of them are about thirty feet 

 wide, but the houses are meanly built, having rarely 

 more than one story above the ground-floor; so 

 that the width of the streets, though not too much 

 for the thronging population and bustle of a Chinese 

 town, conduces but little to beauty or effect. The 

 shops are adorned with silks, porcelain, and japan- 

 ned wares, the most brilliant of which are hung 

 outside the door to attract customers, and (the 

 practice being universal) give the main streets a 

 gay and somewhat of a theatrical appearance. A 

 large board is suspended from the front of each 

 shop ; it is either gilt, or painted with some bright 

 colour and varnished, or some fanciful sign, with 

 the names of the principal articles sold in the shop 

 inscribed upon it. These showy sign boards, placed 

 at equal distances on both sides the streets, give 

 the whole extent the appearance of a long colon- 

 nade, rather curious than beautiful. 



China, like Holland, abounds in canals, but used 

 more for the purposes of irrigation than conveyance. 

 The traveller finds almost everywhere a large canal 

 of fine, deep, clear water, flanked by two cause- 

 ways, cased with flat stones or marble slabs, set in 

 the ground and fastened by groves made in posts 

 or columns of the same materials. From this main 

 canal there shoot off, at certain distances, numbers 

 of smaller canals, the waters of which are again let 

 off into innumerable rivulets that are conducted to 

 different large towns, or employed to irrigate the 

 country. Besides these they have an infinite num- 



ber of reservoirs and channels by which they can 

 lay the fields under water, to produce rice, their 

 principal food, and which requires almost constant 

 humidity. But nothing in China or in any other 

 part of the world in the way of canals, is to be com- 

 pared with the Yun Leang, or Royal canal, which 

 is 300 leagues in length. It was dug by an almost 

 incredible multitude of men, and at a most prodi- 

 gious expense, under the emperor Chi-tson, (about 

 the year 1280), the founder of the dynasty of the 

 western Tartars. " This canal," says Du Halde, 

 " traverses the provinces of Pe-tche-li and Chan- 

 tong; then it enters the province of Kiang-nan, and 

 discharges itself into the great and rapid Yellow 

 River. Down this river you sail for two days, 

 when you come to another river, where you find 

 again the canal, which leads to the city of Hoai- 

 ngan ; from thence it passes by many cities and 

 large towns, and arrives at the city of Yang-tcheou, 

 one of the most famous ports of the empire; arid a 

 little beyond this place it enters the great river 

 Yang-tse Kiang, which divides the province of Ki- 

 ang-si nearly into two equal parts, and runs as far 

 as Nan-ngan, from whence you go by land to Nan- 

 hiong, the chief city of the province of Quang-tong, 

 where you embark upon a river that leads to Can- 

 ton, so that you may travel very commodiously, 

 upon the rivers or canals, from the capital to the 

 remotest part of China, being about 600 leagues, 

 by water.'' " I may safely say," says Barrow, 

 "that, in point of magnitude, our most extensive in- 

 land navigation of England can no more be com- 

 pared to this grand trunk that intersects China 

 than a park or garden fish-pond to the great lake 

 of Winandermere." 



The canals are crossed in all directions by num- 

 berless bridges, but owing to the facility afforded 

 by the canals for transporting weighty burdens by 

 water, these bridges do not require to be built of 

 great strength, as every object of produce or manu- 

 facture can be wafted over on rafts or in barges. 

 In general, indeed, only foot-passengers use the 

 bridges, which are, for the most part, of a light, 

 fanciful and elegant construction. They are found 

 of three, five, or seven arches ; the centre arch being 

 frequently from thirty to forty-five feet wide, 

 and sufficiently high to let vessels pass without 

 striking their masts. Some of them stride across 

 the canal with one bold, lofty arch. The elevation 

 renders in many cases steps necessary, by which 

 you ascend and descend. Some of these bridges 

 are of extraordinary beauty, and even magnificent. 

 There is one near Pekin, built entirely of white 

 marble, elaborately ornamented. Others are found 

 over the canals of still greater magnificence, and 

 with a grand triumphal arch at each end. And 

 others again, instead of being composed of salient 

 arches, are flat from one side of the canal to the 

 other, stones or marble flags of great length being 

 laid on piers so narrow and airy, that the bridge 

 looks as if it were suspended in the air. But the 

 canal bridges are surpassed in magnitude, and occa- 

 sionally in beauty, by the bridges thrown across 

 rivers, or long swamps, and places exposed to in- 

 undations. Some of the latter are of prodigious 

 extent, and have triumphal arches on them, built 

 of wood, in the pagoda style, and splendidly painted. 

 One of the most celebrated of these is the bridge 

 of Loyang in the province of Fokien. According 

 to some authorities, it is 5940 feet iong by 104 feet 

 broad ; it has no arches, but is formed of 300 massy 

 stone piles, over which are laid horizontally large 



