A JOURNEY TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.
Pekin is not very far from the famous wall that was built to keep the
empire of China from the hands of the Tartars. It is commonly mentioned
as "The Great Wall," and certainly it is clearly entitled to the honor,
as it is the greatest wall in the world. To go to Pekin without visiting
the Great Wall would be to leave the journey incomplete; and therefore,
one of the first things that our friends considered was how they should
reach the wall, and how much time they would require for the excursion.
We shall let the boys tell the story, which they did in a letter to
their friends at home. It was written while they were on the steamer
between Tien-tsin and Shanghai, on their return from Pekin.
"We have been to the Great Wall, and it was a journey not to be
forgotten in a minute. We found that we should have to travel a hundred
miles each way, and that the roads were as bad as they usually are in
most parts of China. We went on horseback, but took a mule litter along
for use in case of accidents, and to rest ourselves in whenever one of
us should become weary of too much saddle. There are no hotels of any
consequence, and so we had to take the most of our provisions from
Pekin. We did the same way as when we went from Tien-tsin; that is, we
hired a man to supply all the necessary horses and mules for a certain
price to take us to the wall and back; and if any of them should fall
sick on the road, he was to furnish fresh ones without extra charge. We
were advised to make the bargain in this way, as there was a danger that
some of the horses would get lame; and if there were no provision for
such a case, we should have to pay very high for an extra animal. The
Chinese horse-owners are said to be great rascals--almost equal to some
American men who make a business of buying and selling saddle and
carriage animals. Doctor Bronson says he would like to match the
shrewdest Chinese jockey we have yet seen with a horse-dealer that he
once knew in Washington. He thinks the Yankee could give the Chinese
great odds, and then beat him.
[Illustration: WALKING ON STILTS.]
"It was a feast-day when we left Pekin, and there were a good many sports
going on in the streets, as we filed out of the city on our way to the
north. There was a funny procession of men on stilts. They were
fantastically dressed, and waved fans and chopsticks and other things,
while they shouted and sang to amuse the crowd. One of them was dressed
as a woman, who pretended to hold her eyes down so that nobody could
see them, and she danced around on her stilts as though she had been
accustomed to them all her life. In fact, the whole party were quite at
home on their stilts, and would have been an attraction in any part of
America. Whenever the Chinese try to do anything of this sort, they are
pretty sure to do it well.
[Illustration: JUGGLER SPINNING A PLATE.]
"Then there were jugglers spinning plates on sticks, and doing other
things of a character more or less marvellous. One of their tricks is to
spin the plate on two sticks held at right angles to each other, instead
of on a single stick, as with us; but how they manage to do it I am
unable to say. They make the plate whirl very fast, and can keep it up a
long time without any apparent fatigue.
[Illustration: GAMBLING WITH A REVOLVING POINTER.]
"We passed several men who had small establishments for gambling, not
unlike some that are known in America. There was one with a revolving
pointer on the top of a horizontal table that was divided into sections
with different marks and numbers. The pointer had a string, hanging down
from one end, and the way they made the machine work was to whirl the
pointer, and see where the string hung when it stopped. The game
appeared to be very fair, as the man who paid his money had the chance
of whirling the pointer, and he might do his own guessing as to where it
would stop. If he was right, he would win eight times as much money as
he had wagered, since the board was divided into eight spaces. If he was
wrong, he lost all that he put down, and was obliged to go away or try
his luck again. The temptation to natives seems to be very great, since
they are constantly gambling, and sometimes lose all the money they
have. Gambling is so great a vice in China that a good many of its forms
have been forbidden by the government. The case is not unusual of a man
losing everything he possesses, even to his wife and children, and then
being thrown naked into the streets by the proprietor of the place where
he has lost his money.
[Illustration: FORTUNE-TELLING BY MEANS OF A BIRD AND SLIPS OF PAPER.]
"We stopped to look at some fortune-tellers, who were evidently doing a
good business, as they had crowds around them, and were taking in small
sums of money every few minutes. One of them had a little bird in a
cage, and he had a table which he folded and carried on his back when he
was moving from one place to another. When he opened business, he spread
his table, and then laid out some slips of paper which were folded, so
that nobody could see what there was inside. Next he let the bird out of
the cage, which immediately went forward and picked up one of the slips
and carried it to his master. The man then opened the paper and read
what was written on it, and from this paper he made a prediction about
the fortune of the person who had engaged him.
"There was another fortune-teller who did his work by writing on a
plate. He had several sheets of paper folded up, and from these he asked
his customer to select one. When the selection was made, he dissected
the writing, and showed its meaning to be something so profound that the
customer was bewildered and thought he had nothing but good-fortune
coming to him. We tried to get these men to tell our fortunes, but they
preferred to stick to their own countrymen, probably through fear that
they would lose popularity if they showed themselves too friendly with
the strangers.
[Illustration: FORTUNE-TELLING BY DISSECTING CHINESE CHARACTERS.]
"The Chinese are great believers in fortune-telling, and even the most
intelligent of them are often calling upon the necromancers to do
something for them. They rarely undertake any business without first
ascertaining if the signs are favorable; and if they are not, they will
decline to have anything to do with it. When a merchant has a cargo of
goods on its way, he is very likely to ask a fortune-teller how the
thing is to turn out; and if the latter says it is all right, he gets
liberally paid for his information. But in spite of their superstition,
the Chinese are very shrewd merchants, and can calculate their profits
with great accuracy.
"Well, this is not going to the Great Wall. We went out of Pekin by the
north gate, and into a country that was flat and dusty. Fred's pony was
not very good-natured, and every little while took it into his head to
balance himself on the tip of his tail. This was not the kind of riding
we had bargained for, as it made the travel rather wearisome, and
interfered with the progress of the whole caravan. We thought the pony
would behave himself after a little fatigue had cooled his temper; but
the more we went on, the worse he became. When we were about ten miles
out, he ran away, and went tearing through a cotton-field as though he
owned it, and he ended by pitching his rider over his head across a
small ditch.
"Then we found how lucky it was we had brought along a mule litter, as
Fred rode in it the rest of the day. Next morning he made our guide
change ponies with him. In half an hour the guide was in a mud puddle,
and saying something in Chinese that had a very bad sound, but it didn't
help dry his clothes in the least. On the whole, we got along very well
with the ponies in the north of China, when we remember the bad
reputation they have and the things that most travellers say about them.
[Illustration: CHINESE RAZOR.]
"We stopped at the village of Sha-ho, about twenty miles from Pekin; and
as we had started a little late, and it was near sunset, we concluded to
spend the night there. There was not much to see at the village, except
a couple of fine old bridges built of stone, and so solid that they
will evidently last a long time. A barber came around and wanted to
shave us, but for several reasons we declined his proposal, and
satisfied ourselves by seeing him operate on a native customer. The
Chinese razor is a piece of steel of a three-cornered shape, and is
fastened to a handle about four inches long. It is kept very sharp, as
any well-regulated razor should be, and a barber will handle it with a
great deal of dexterity. The Chinese haven't much beard to shave off,
but they make up for it with a very thick growth of hair, which is all
removed every ten or twelve days, with the exception of a spot on the
crown about four inches in diameter. The hair on this spot is allowed to
grow as long as it will, and is then braided into the cue or pigtail
that everybody knows about.
[Illustration: BARBER SHAVING THE HEAD OF A CUSTOMER.]
"After we left Sha-ho the country became rough, and the road grew
steadily worse. Our ponies were pretty sure-footed, but they stumbled
occasionally, and Frank narrowly escaped a bad fall. The pony went down
all in a heap and threw Frank over his head. He fell on a soft spot, and
so was not injured; but if the accident had happened six feet farther
on, or six feet farther back, it would have thrown him among the rough
stones, where there were some very ugly points sticking up.
[Illustration: BRIDGE OF THE CLOUDY HILLS.]
"We found another fine bridge on this part of the road, and our guide
said it was called the 'Bridge of the Cloudy Hills,' because the clouds
frequently hung over the hills in the distance. The Chinese are very
fond of fanciful names for their bridges and temples, and frequently
the name has very little to do with the structure itself. I am told that
there is a bridge in the south of China with exactly the same name as
this, and not far from it is another called the 'Bridge of the Ten
Thousand Ages.' We have seen the 'Temple of Golden Happiness' and the
'Bridge of Long Repose.' We shall be on the lookout for the 'Temple of
the Starry Firmament,' and probably shall not be long in finding it.
Strange that a people so practical as the Chinese should have so much
poetry in their language!
"We came to the village of Nan-kow, at the entrance of the Nan-kow Pass,
and stopped there for dinner. Our ride had given us a good appetite, and
though our cook was not very skilful in preparing our meal, we did not
find fault with him, as we did not wish to run the risk of waiting while
he cooked the things over again. The Chinese inn at Nan-kow is not so
good as the Palace Hotel at San Francisco; in fact, it is as bad as any
other hotel that we have seen. They don't have much pleasure travel in
this part of the world, and therefore it does not pay them to give much
attention to the comfort of their guests.
"The Nan-kow Pass is about thirteen miles long, and the road through it
is very rough. The mountains are steep, and we saw here and there ruins
of forts that were built long ago to keep out the Tartar invaders of
China. Our animals had several falls, but they got through without
accident, and, what was more, they brought us to a village where there
was an inn with something good to eat.
[Illustration: THE GOD OF THE KITCHEN.]
"What do you suppose it was? It was mutton, which is kept boiling in a
pot from morning till night; and as fast as any is taken out, or the
soup boils down, they fill the kettle up again. Mutton is very cheap
here, as sheep are abundant and can be bought at the purchaser's own
price, provided he will keep himself within reason. Great numbers of
sheep are driven to Pekin for the supply of the city, and we met large
flocks at several points on the road. Their wool has been exported to
England and America; but it is not of a fine quality, and does not bring
a high price.
"We passed the ruins of forts and towers every few miles, and our guide
pointed out some of the towers that were formerly used for conveying
intelligence by means of signal-fires. They are now falling to pieces,
and are of no further use.
"This is the road by which the Tartars went to the conquest of China,
and there is a story that the empire was lost in consequence of a woman.
The Chinese were very much afraid of the Tartars, and they built the
Great Wall to keep them out of the country. But a wall would be of no
use without soldiers to defend it, and so it was arranged that whenever
the Tartars were approaching, a signal should be sent along the towers,
and the army would come to Pekin to defend it.
"One day a favorite lady of the emperor's palace persuaded the emperor
to give the signal, to see how long it would take for the generals and
the army to get to Pekin. He gave the signal, and the army came, but the
generals were very angry when they found they had been called together
just to amuse a woman. They went back to their homes, and the affair was
supposed to be forgotten.
"By-and-by the Tartars did come in reality, and the signal was sent out
again. But this time no army came, nor did a single general turn his
face to Pekin. The city fell into the hands of the invaders, and they
are there to-day. So much for what a woman did; but it sounds too much
like the story of 'The Boy and the Wolf' to be true.
"At the last place where we stopped before reaching the Great Wall we
found the people very insolent, both to us and to the men in our employ.
They said rude things to us, and perhaps it was fortunate that we did
not understand Chinese, or we might have been disposed to resent their
impudence, and so found ourselves in worse trouble. Our guide said
something to a lama, or priest, and he managed to make the people quiet,
partly by persuasion and partly by threats. Some of the men had been
drinking too freely of sam-shoo, which has the same effect on them as
whiskey has on people in America. It is not unusual for strangers in
this part of China to be pelted with stones; but the natives are afraid
to do much more than this, as they would thereby get into trouble.
[Illustration: A LAMA.]
"At the place where we reach the Great Wall there is a Chinese city
called Chan-kia-kow; but it is known to the Russians as Kalgan. It is
the frontier town of Mongolia, and the Russians have a great deal of
commerce with it. It stands in a valley, and so high are the mountains
around it that the sun does not rise until quite late in the forenoon.
Doctor Bronson said there is a town somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of
America which is so shut in that the sun does not rise there until about
eleven o'clock next day; and we thought it might possibly be a relative
of Chan-kia-kow. There is an odd sort of population here, as the
merchants who trade with the Russians are from all parts of China; and
then there are Mongols from the Desert of Gobi, and a very fair number
of real Russians.
[Illustration: THE HILLS NEAR CHAN-KIA-KOW.]
"One curious article of trade consisted of logs from the country to the
north. They are cut in lengths of about six feet, and are intended for
coffins for the people of the southern part of the empire. Wood is
scarce in the more densely inhabited portions of China, and must be
carried for great distances. It is six hundred miles from the Great Wall
to where these logs are cut, and so they must be carried seven hundred
miles in all before they reach Pekin. The carts on which they are loaded
are very strong, and have not a bit of iron about them.
"We are now at the Great Wall, which comes straggling over the hills
that surround the city, and forms its northern boundary. It is very much
in ruins, but at the town itself there is a portion of it kept in good
repair, and one of the gates is regularly shut at night and opened in
the morning. Some of the old towers are still in their places; but the
weather is slowly wearing them away, and in time they will all be
fallen.
"The Great Wall is certainly one of the wonders of the world, and it was
very much so at the time of its construction. It was built two thousand
years ago, and is about twelve hundred miles long. It runs westward from
the shores of the Gulf of Pe-chi-li to what was then the western
frontier of the Chinese Empire. For the greater part of the way it
consists of a wall of earth faced with stone or brick, and it is paved
on the top with large tiles. It is about twenty-five feet wide at the
bottom, and diminishes to fifteen feet wide at the top, with a height of
thirty feet. In many places it is not so substantial as this, being
nothing more than a wall of earth faced with brick, and not more than
fifteen feet high. At varying intervals there are towers for watchmen
and soldiers. They are generally forty or fifty feet high, and about
three hundred feet apart.
"The wall follows all the inequalities of the surface of the earth,
winding over mountains and through valleys, crossing rivers by massive
archways, and stretching straight as a sunbeam over the level plain.
"Think what a work this would be at the present day, and then remember
that it was built two thousand years ago, when the science of
engineering was in its infancy, and the various mechanical appliances
for moving heavy bodies were unknown!
"We spent a day at the Great Wall. We scrambled over the ruins and
climbed to the top of one of the towers, and we had more than one tumble
among the remains of the great enterprise of twenty centuries ago. Then
we started back to Pekin, and returned with aching limbs and a general
feeling that we had had a hard journey. But we were well satisfied that
we had been there, and would not have missed seeing the Great Wall for
twice the fatigue and trouble. They told us in Pekin that some
travellers have been imposed on by seeing only a piece of a wall about
thirty miles from the city, which the guides pretend is the real one.
They didn't try the trick on us, and probably thought it would not be of
any use to do so.
"We did not stay long in Pekin after we got back from the Great Wall, as
we had to catch the steamer at Tien-tsin. Here we are steaming down the
coast, and having a jolly time. We are on the same ship that took us up
from Shanghai, and so we feel almost as if we had got home again. But we
are aware that home is yet a long way off, and we have many a mile
between us and the friends of whom we think so often."