all the different forces that are now at work to make or mar China
issue from, or converge towards, the capital. There, on the dragon
throne, beside, or rather above, the powerless and unhappy Emperor, the
father of his people and their god, sits the astute and ever-watchful
lady whose word is law to Emperor, minister and clown alike. There
dwell the heads of the government boards, the leaders of the Manchu
aristocracy, and the great political parties, the drafters of new
constitutions and imperial decrees, and the keen-witted diplomatists
who know so well how to play against European antagonists the great
game of international chess.--R. F. Johnston in "From Peking to
Mandelay."

XX

PEKING--THE CITY OF THE COURT

In the place where Peking now stands there has been a city for three
thousand years. Five centuries before Christ it was the capital of a
small state, but was destroyed three centuries later by the builder of
the great wall. It was soon rebuilt, however, and has continued from
that time until the present, with varied fortunes, as the capital of a
state, the chief city of a department, or the dwelling-place of the
court.

It is the greatest and best preserved walled city in the empire, if not
in the world. The Tartar City is sixteen miles in circumference,
surrounded by a wall sixty feet thick at the bottom, fifty feet thick
at the top and forty feet high, with six feet of balustrade on the
outside, beautifully crenelated and loopholed, and in a good state of
preservation. The streets are sixty feet wide,--or even more in
places,--well macadamized, and lit with electric light. The chief mode
of conveyance is the 'ricksha, though carriages may be hired by the
week, day or hour at various livery stables in proximity to the hotels,
which, by the way, furnish as good accommodation to their guests as the
hotels of other Oriental cities.

In the centre of the Tartar City is the Imperial City, eight miles in
circumference, encircled by a wall six feet thick and fifteen feet
high, pierced by four gates at the points of the compass; and in the
centre of this again is the Forbidden City, occupying less than half a
square mile, the home of the court.

Fairs are held, at various temples, fourteen days of every month,
distributed in such a way as to bring them almost on alternate days,
while at certain times there are two fairs on the same day. It is a
mistake to suppose that the Chinese women in the capital ar