CuAP. XVI. 
TARTAR CITY OF CHAPOO. 
267 
the city, and inspected their vegetation. On the way I 
visited some temples which had been battered down by 
our troops dm*ing the war, and which still remained in 
the same ruinous condition. Hundreds of people followed 
me to the hills, the view from which is one of the finest 
I ever saw in this country. Here it is that the hills of 
the south end, and the wide plain of the Yang-tse-kiang 
commences. On one side, looking towards the south 
and west, mountains are seen towering in all their 
grandeur; whilst on the northern side the eye rests 
on a rich and level plain, watered by its thousand 
canals, and dotted all over with towns and villages 
peopled with an immense number of industrious and 
happy human beings. Chapoo and the country which 
surrounds it may well be called the garden of China. 
After inspecting the hills I went down into the 
Tartar city of Chapoo. The suburbs are large and 
populous, but the walled city itself is not very extensive. 
It is a square, and the circuit of the walls is not more 
than three miles ; they seem very old, and are surrounded 
by a moat, which also serves the purpose of a canal. 
Here the Tartar troops and their families reside, living 
entirely apart from the Chinese inhabitants of the 
town. 
The streets, houses, and shops are of the same kind as 
those which I have already described. Indeed, so like 
is one town in China to another, that, if a traveller well 
acquainted with the northern cities was set down blind- 
folded in one of them, he would have the greatest 
difficulty in saying whether it was Chapoo, Ning-po, 
or Shanghae. I observed in the shops a considerable 
N 2 
