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Show HowTo See Peipi n6 . x -ytM;, . - "- J LJi4 J VI 4 Lr- .J , " X l V III, u"-4 Curbstone Market In Pefping. Prepartnl bv National Geographic Society, VVa.hiiicton. D. C. WNU Service. CENSUS enumerators recently counted some 3,000 foreigners among the residents of Peiping, exclusive of foreign legation guards. Japanese led the list with 001 and 340 Koreans. There also were 500 Americans, SOS Russians, 2S2 British nnd 170 Frenchmen, 107 Hermans, and a sprinkling each of Italians, Danes, Swedes, Belgians, Turks and Finns. Drama has continued to march In cycles since Marco Polo visited Peiping. Peip-ing. then Khanbaligh, and brought back to unbelieving Venice tales of its incredible magnificence. The city recently gave way again to Nanking's predominence as China's political po-litical center, nnd has reassnmed the name of Peiping, which It possessed In the sad days before the later Mings nnd Manchus ruled from the Dragon throne. But Peking (or Pel Chlng, if one ) takes the northern pronunciation), meaning "Northern Capital." It will continue long to be called, even though the turn of political events has robbed It of that rank nnd has reduced It to the City of the Northern Plains. To see the city best Is to gain first a view of Its entirety. An excellent vantage point Is one of the high towers tow-ers of the massive city wall, or "Coal Hill," a mound back of the Forbidden city a panorama once denied lest one happen to peep at the Imperial palaces. pal-aces. Better yet, see It from the air. FTom above you discover that Peiping Is a city beside a city and cities within a city. As one approaches from the south, the Chinese section Is In the foreground, fore-ground, and stretching back from it Is the old Manchu or Tatar district, within the center of which Is the Imperial Im-perial city. Pinkish-red walls, yellow tiled on top. In turn set apart the yellow yel-low roofed "Purple Forbidden City" In the heart of the moated Imperial enclosure. Center of the Univerie. "Down there's the Altar and Temple of Heaven," the pilot shouts In your ear, as he Indicates the massive circular cir-cular marble platform and adjacent round, blue roofed temple below you In the center of a large pnrk nt the southern part of the Chinese city. The old emperors believed that the center of that altar was the center of the whole universe. Why not? Considering the exten-slveness exten-slveness of the domain over which those monarchs ruled, there seems pardonable Justification for their egotism. Your plane hanks sharply nnd hangs edgewise, filling the air with exhausted gasoline fumes over that three tiered disk of pure-white marble from which once nscomled annually the smoke of burnt offering "a bull calf of unmixed un-mixed color and without Haw" while the "Son of Heaven" knelt In reverence rever-ence and praved for a blessing to descend de-scend on his people. Nature worship under the dome of sky. old as time. Americans learn with pride that the triple roofs of azure tile which crown the Impressive Temple of Heaven are supported on mighty columns of Oregon Ore-gon pine, supplied at considerable expense ex-pense of transportation when local wood of sufficient size could not be obtained, ob-tained, at the time the temple was rebuilt. re-built. As the plane swings again toward the Tatar city yon skirt the Temple of Agriculture. The grounds around the decaying buildings and the square nltars have reverted to grass nnd weeds; a flock of sheep or goats feeds calmly In the neglected courtyards. The walls around the Chinese city embrace only nhout nne half ns much area as Is Included within the Tatar fortifications; the shops nnd homes of the Chinese district are crowded near the communicating gales. Roaring over the ('bleu Men, massive mas-sive central gate through which n large part of the tralllc between these two sections passes, people and carts coursing through Its arches look like a ml 11 1 ii ft army of ants, nnd Ihe train-rnrs train-rnrs nnd nutos like dartlnu cockroaches. cock-roaches. Abreast, nnd off the right wing. Is the walled In Legation quarter, with the Ameriean legation nnd the buildings build-ings of the marine corps guard, marked by tall radio towers, standing closest to the gale. The Forbidden City. Almost Immediately the Forbidden city Is beneath you. (inly from riicIi air perspective can come the full appreciation of the symmetry sym-metry and evpaiiHlveuess of Yung Lo's building opei at ions. Boldly planned and executed, even i surpassing the courts of Kublai Khan, were the palaces and the capital of the mighty Ming emperor. The whole plan, history says, was conceived In detail by a Taoist monk, a close friend of the haughty Yung Lo. Below lie rectangles of courtyards, some cut by curving marble-bridged streams, and a patchwork of red gates, halls, reception rooms, and living quarters quar-ters of the emperor and his countless retainers, under roofs of shimmering Imperial yellow. Each was built according to all the regulations of astronomic and geoman-tic geoman-tic influences. The palaces stand today to-day essentially as their construction was commanded more than five centuries cen-turies ago. You circle the three lakes Nan Hal, Chung Hal, and Pel Hal (the South, Central, and North seas) that cut down through the Imperial city, to the west of the inner palaces. Lotns-mottled Lotns-mottled blue waters and Irregular banks of green, studded here and there with yellow and green roofs, are marvels mar-vels of landscape gardening, large even from the air. Yung Lo gets credit for those, too. The Drum and Bell towers soon slide under ns you zoom and head north r.gain. Marco Polo beard the watches of night boom from this same Drum tower. The drumheads were strong, then, having served but three years when he arrived. Today the tower has become an educational library nnd a propaganda center, and Is plastered with Kuomintang posters, j health suggestions, anti-Communistic displays, and other notices. Some Modern Groups. Swinging over the Confucian and i Lama temples, their golden tile roofs ! still bravely flashing up the fact that they once had royal support, and then hack over the Forbidden city, yon ! catch a glimpse of green roofs far off i beyond either wing tip. The group near the lakes Is the new ! National library; the other, off Hata j Men street, Is the Peking Union Medl- I cal college. Both are attempts to pre- I serve the beauty of Chinese architec-Hire architec-Hire In modern building construction. Under the roof of the former Is housed a fine collection of rare Chi- rose books nnd other facilities for j scholarly Peiping. and within the walls ' of the latter foreign doctors and Chi- nese trained abroad are teaching new ; students how to help the blind to see, ! the lame to walk, nnd the sick to be- j come whole. The plane banks sharply over the ! Reserved City of Emperors to get yet another look at Its symphony of color and plan mathematics blended with esthetic beauty tjien turns toward the j Feveral Hags that wave over the for- eign legations. Finally you dart over ' the Chinese city, which from your ! height appears like a Jumble of nur- scry building blocks. The sun-gilded j dust mantle follows fast in your wake, as you return to the landing field. ! From the ground, detail mid size are : added to your sky-map perspective. Fourteen miles In circumference, I fifty cubits In height nnd fifty In ' breadth, the whole circuit having bat- ! tlements and embrasures that was ' the completed task of the brick and stone masons more than oiXl years ago. The city wall remains much the I same today as when It was piled to- gethor. Wars, time, nnd prying tree ' roots, however, have caused It to crum- j ble and bulge In places; spots show I where repairs have been made. Few of (he nine gates are Intact, and all but two of the corner towers have been destroyed. Traffic Through the Gatei. The gates are the mouths of the city; they are the openings through which this huge walled In body of a million or so organisms breathes and speaks; thus have the nine passageways passage-ways been described. One can learn much of Pelplng's dally business by standing nt the gates nnd watching the tnilllv' that passes. In the early morning a steadily Increasing In-creasing (low of trnltlc begins to movo through tho gate. Pensanls push heavily laden wheelbarrows, with small Jingling bells strung in the spokes of Ihe wheels. Others carry baskets of produce on shoulder poles. Donkeys Jostle rickshas, nnd now and then hurrying hur-rying nutotnobllcs honk raucously to J clear the way of pedestrians going to i their various tasks. And camels I Long caravans come ( shuffling In from Kalgnn or far Men- 1 golla, or are returning from the Western West-ern hills with heavy bags of coal aluivtf between their grunt humps. |
