One Month's Tour in the Flowery Kingdom
INCLUDING SHANGHAI, TAKU, TIENTSIN, PEKIN, THE GREAT WALL, MING TOMBS, HONG KONG, CANTON AND MACAO.
| 1st day 2d |
Shanghai is reached by direct steamer from Europe, or, in two days, from Japan. It is a bright, cheerful city, well laid out with handsome public buildings and club houses. Each important foreign nation has its separate concession. Bubbling-Well Road is a handsome driveway, the private residences being surrounded by spacious compounds. It is a great center of trade in silks and brocades, and there is much display of wealth and elegance by the native as well as the foreign population. |
| 3d day 4th |
Leave by local steamer for Taku, to which port there are also steamers from Japan; thence by rail, via Tientsin, for Pekin. |
5th day |
Pekin, the mysterious city of the East, had rude awakenings from centuries of seclusion when, in 1840, the armies of England and France dictated terms of peace at the capital of China; and in 1900, when the Boxer rising compelled the occupation of the city by troops of all nations, and its innermost recesses were laid bare by the " foreign barbarians." In shape Pekin may be roughly described as a square within an oblong, the former standing for the Tartar, and the latter the Chinese city. The outer walls, which are about sixty feet high and of immense thickness, stand about 150 yards from the enclosed city, the space between being occupied by a barren, sandy waste. Around the inner circumference of this sandy waste are two smaller walls of considerable height, enclosing the Imperial or Yellow City, and the Forbidden or Violet City. The Tartar City is very filthy, the one bright spot being the Legation Street, which made such a heroic defense against the hordes of murderous Boxers in 1900, episodes only equaled during the Indian Mutiny. Pekin is not nice or interesting, ' except to those who can obtain an entree into the Forbidden City to see the wonderful treasures of Chinese art within the Imperial Palace, which is like an oasis in a desert of shabbiness. In the Chinese City are the Temple of Heaven, where the emperor offers sacrifice, and the Temple of Agriculture ; but foreigners are generally excluded from both. |
| 8th day | Leave Pekin by pony for Nankau (thirty-three miles). |
| 9th day | Leave Nankau, passing an offshoot of the Great Wall in about five hours; thence via Chatau Pass, which is fifteen miles long and has an altitude of 2,100 feet at the highest end, to Huai-lai. |
| 10th day | Huai-lai to Ki-ming. |
| 11th day | Ki-ming to Yu-lin, over a pass which commands a fine view of the Great Wall, now towering on a summit, now lost in a valley, winding like a huge serpent in its course of fifteen hundred miles. |
| 12th day | Yu-lin to Kalgan, built on the banks of a swift-flowing river at an elevation of 2,450 feet, where the Great Wall, running down the spurs of the range on the east, crosses the river to ascend immediately on the southern side. The town of Kalgan blocks the passes leading from Mongolia, and the great caravan route lies across it |
| 13th day | Leave Kalgan for Hsuen-hwa. |
| 14th day | Leave Hsuen-hwa for Huai-lai, a fortified town of some importance. |
| 15th day | Leave Huai-lai for Cha-tau, a walled town situated a mile and a half from the entrance gate of £he wall in the pass, which curves back until its flanks reach the Great Wall. |
| 16th day | Leave Cha-tau for Chang-ping-Chau, skirting the beautifully cultivated hills to the Imperial Ming Tombs. The original conception of the mausoleums of the thirteen emperors of the Ming dynasty was grand. A noble causeway ran down the middle of a plain, over marble bridges and under monumental arches, and was flanked by huge, sculptured figures of warriors and animals. In the fourteenth century the Mings were displaced by the present Manchu dynasty, who have their imperial tombs near Mukden (Manchuria). |
| 17th day | Leave Chang-ping-Chau, and after traveling several miles arrive at the Tomb of Yung-lo, the greatest of the Ming emperors. The imposing style of the buildings, the lavish display of ornaments and marble, and the beauty of the trees and shrubs, combine to make this tomb the finest and most impressive of all. The night is spent in Sha-ho. |
| 18th day | To Pekin, in about six hours |
| 19th day 20th 21st |
To Hankow, on the Yangtse River, by rail ; about thirty-six hours through an agricultural country. There is a weekly express train which covers the distance in a little over twenty-four hours. The Bund at Hankow is, after that at Shanghai, the finest in China. There is a good hotel, and a race-course. From Hankow to Ichang, the head of steam navigation, takes about seven days. The scenery of the river is level until, below Ichang, the gorge known as the Tiger's Tooth is reached. This is a splendid natural arch spanning a ravine. Beyond Ichang the upper reaches of the Yangtse are a succession of rapids and gorges. The scenery is magnificent, but a special permit for passage is required from the several mandarins governing the provinces passed through. There is no traveling accommodation beyond Ichang, and a house-boat must be hired. Although the beautiful Yangtse Valley, under the "British sphere of influence," may become a highway for tourists, the time is not yet here. |
| 22d day 23d 24th 25th |
Hankow to Hong Kong by steamer, via Shanghai. There is frequent communication between the three cities, the voyage taking about four days. |
| 26th day 27th |
Hong Kong, the British stronghold in China, and one of the most fascinating and picturesque places in all the East. Approached by tortuous and strongly fortified passages, the town of Victoria, like Gibraltar, lies along the base of a high hill called the Peak, which commands a fine view of one of the four greatest harbors of the world. . The English church, amid tropical vegetation, and guarded by a heavy piece of ordnance which can sweep the whole town if necessary, is a strange combination in a strange land. Hong Kong's one street leads to Happy Valley, where are the cemeteries and a racecourse. Leave by night steamer for Canton. |
| 28th day 29th |
Canton. Although Canton is one of the best Chinese cities to visit, as far as cleanliness and order are concerned, yet we are thankful for the proximity of Hong Kong, with its British mili- tary and naval forces. The Cantonese are traders, and their city is a walled one externally and internally, and is interesting. The life on the Pearl River is a great feature, half the population living on river-boats called sampans. |
| 30th day | Leave Canton by steamer for Macao. |
| 31st day | Macao, the ancient 'Portuguese settlement in China, is quite picturesque, although there is not much of Chinese life to be seen here. It is, in fact, a bit of old Portugal transplanted to the Far East. The Portuguese poet, Luis Camoens, is said to have composed his chief work, the "Lusiad," here. |
| 32d day | Sail across the beautiful bay to Hong Kong. |
