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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Dorothy D. Andrews 

 CAMEL-BACK BRIDGE IN TDK GROUNDS OF THE IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE 

 Note the elaborately carved white marble railings. 



The spirit of the building demands that 

 the beholder draw near gradually and 

 with reverence, not pop upon it like a 

 jack out of the box. 



THE DRAGON SCREEN A MARVEL OF 

 PICTORIAL ART 



Another of the unexpected treasures 

 of Peking is the dragon screen. It is 

 barely mentioned in some of the guide- 

 books and not mentioned at all in others. 

 It is hidden behind a hillock in the winter 

 palace grounds, and nine-tenths of the 

 visitors to Peking walk within a hundred 

 yards of it and never dream of its exist- 

 ence. 



It is a wall perhaps twenty feet high 

 and a hundred long, faced completely 

 with tile cast to represent nine life-size 

 dragons in bas-relief, of various colors — 

 yellow, purple, butt, maroon, orange — 

 dancing gaily above emerald billows. 

 again si a pale-blue sky. 



Doubtless one should not speak of 

 "life-size" dragons; but these creatures 

 of the screen are the alivest dragons one 

 may ever hope to see : they give rise to 

 the feeling that if a dragon lived he 

 would be exactly like one of these. 



Most sculptured Chinese dragons are 

 lifeless, angular beasts: but here there is 

 an almost un-Chinese vigor and audacity 

 in the spring and twist of the lithe bodies. 

 They leap, whirl, lunge, and writhe until 

 the spectator steps back, half afraid that 

 they will come tumbling off the screen, 

 striking at the unwary with their sturdy 

 claws. There are. I believe, critics who 

 teach that plastic art should never under- 

 take to portray moments of activity. If 

 this be correct, the dragons stand con- 

 demned: but if the sculptor may ever 

 rightly give us life in its vivid, moving 

 moments, here is a masterpiece. 



THE WOMEN OF PEKING A SOURCE OF 

 SURPRISE 



Dragons and donkeys, fanes and thor- 

 oughfares, caravans and castles, do not 

 exhaust the list of things unexpected 

 which await the traveler in Peking. 

 There also are the people. 



The first strikingly surprising custom 

 among them is that the women wear 

 skirts. To a traveler fresh from Amer- 

 ica this would seem as it should be. but 

 to one resident in the land of trousered 

 women it appears almost immodest ! 



