Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/30

 The Chien Mên-Peking's Front Gate

BETWEEN the Nei Chêng, or Tartar City, on the north, and the Wai P E R Chêng, or Chinese City, in the south, we find two of the finest specimens of purely Chinese architecture in the capital - the huge Ch'ien Mén, or "Front Gate" and its adjoining tower. This imposing outer gate, here shoum in all its splendor, is built on the site of a five-hundred-year-old Ming structure, which was burned by the Boxers in 1900. A jew months later the inner tower also caught fire and was reduced to ashes. "The Chinese, fearful of ill-luck overtaking the city, hastened to rebuild both towers, which are practically the only monuments in Peking restored since Chien Lung's time." The Chien Mên tower is a huge brick structure built along medieval lines. A broad double stairway leads from the once sacred lower court to the lofty terrace above. Shining balustrades of polished marble and massive double roofs of gleaming emerald tile add life and color to the drab-gray of brick and stone, and transform this gateway into a thing of life and beauty. Typical of all the other towers, it is ninety-nine feet high, which allows free and uninterrupted passage for the good spirits who soar through the air, according to the necromancers, at a height of one hundred feet" The great central doorway, the arch of which is just discernible above the tree tops, has for centuries been kept for the sovereign's use alone. No common feet were allowed to desecrate this sacred entrance. To-day, even though the imperial prerogatives have long since passed away, we still find the huge doors closed and barred; and the populace, quietly submissive to an age-old custom, uncomplainingly make their way around the mammoth pavilion Vithin recent years four wide passages have been pierced through the walls - two on either side of the inner tower. This has helped greatly to relieve the congestion of traffic between the south and the north city. The former single entrance was wholly inadequate for the traffic of a great capital's main thoroughfare. In former days the two towers were connected by high walls, semicircular in form, with the convex side facing the outer or south city. This wall with its outer tower served as a double protection to the inner gate that opens directly into the capital with its vast treasures and splendid palaces. Most of the gateways still retain this medieval feature, of which, within the last three decades the great "Front Gate" has been robbed If one would see the street life of Peking, no better place could be fourd than this spot between the two towers of the Ch'ien Mén. This hot July morning finds the streets unusually quiet. Pedestrians a donkey, rickshas, a Peking cart, and last of all the modern tramcar make up the list of Peking's popular modes of travel. Besides these we find the common handcart with its human horses straining away under the load of heavy freight For a further description of Peking's walls and towers, see pages 18 and 136,