96 CHINA, 



Chief cities, edifices The empire is said to contain 4400 



walled cities ; the chief of which are Peking, Nanking, and Canton. 

 Peking, the capital of the whole empire of China, and the ordinary re- 

 sidence of the emperors, is situated in a very ferule plain, twenty 

 leagues distant from the great wall. It is an oblong square, and is 

 divided into two cities; that which contains the emperor's palace is 

 called the Tartar city, because the houses were given to the Tartars 

 when the present family came to the throne ; and they, refusing to 

 suffer the Chinese to inhabit it, forced them to live without the walls, 

 where they in a short time built a new city ; which, by being joined 

 to the other, renders the whole of an irregular form, six leagues in 

 compass. The walls and gates of Peking are of the surprising height 

 of fifty cubits, so that they hide the whole city ; and are so broad, that 

 centinels are placed upon them on horseback ; for there are slopes 

 within the city of considerable length, by which horsemen may as- 

 cend the walls, and in several places there are houses built for the 

 guards. The gates, which are nine in number, are neither embellish - 

 ed with statues, nor other carving, all their beauty consisting in their 

 prodigious height, which at a distance gives them a noble appearance. 

 The arches of the gates are built of marble ; and the rest with large 

 bricks cemented with excellent mortar. Most of the streets are 

 built in a direct line : the largest are about 120 feet broad, and a 

 league in length. The shops where they sell silks and China-ware 

 generally take up the whole street, and afford a very agreeable pros- 

 pect. Each shop-keeper places before his shop, on a small kind of 

 pedestal, a board about twenty feet high, painted, varnished, and 

 often gilt, on which are written in large characters, the names of the 

 several commodities he sells. These being placed on each side of 

 the street, at nearly an equal distance from each other, have a very 

 pretty appearance : but the houses are poorly built in front, and very 

 low ; most of them having only a ground-floor, and none exceeding 

 one story above it. Of ail the buildings in this great city, the most 

 remarkable is the imperial palace ; the grandeur of which does not 

 consist so much in the nobleness and elegance of the architecture, as 

 the multitude of its buildings, courts, and gardens, all regularly dis- 

 posed : for within the walls are not only the emperor's house, but a 

 little town, inhabited by the officers of the court, and a multitude of 

 artificers employed and kept by the emperor ; but the houses of the 

 courtiers and artificers are low and ill contrived. F. Artier, a French 

 Jesuit, who was indulged with a sight of the palace and gardens, says 

 that the palace is more than three miles in circumference ; and that 

 the front of the building shines with gilding, paint, and varnish, while 

 the inside is set off and furnished with every thing that is most beau- 

 tiful and precious in China, the Indies, and Europe. The gardens 

 of this palace are large tracts of ground, in which are raised, at pro- 

 per distances, artificial mountains, from twenty to sixty feet high : 

 which form a number of small vallies plentifully watered by canals ; 

 which uniting, form lakes and meres. Beautiful and magnificent 

 barks sail on these pieces of water ; and the banks are ornamented 

 with ranges of buildings, not any two of which are said to have any 

 resemblance to each other : which diversity produces a very pleasing 

 effect. Every valley has its house of pleasure, large enough to lodge 

 one of our greatest lords in Europe, with all his retinue : many of 

 these houses are built with cedar, brought, at a vast expence, the dis- 

 tance of 500 leagues. Of these palaces, or houses of pleasure, there 



