Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/44

 The Mountain of Ten Thousand Ages T is one of those delightful Oriental days in early spring. The warm April sun, half hidden behind fleecy clouds, mounts higher and higher as ve, on our pilgrimage to the Summer Palace, bid farewell to the massive gray walls of old Hsi Chih Men and enter the long winding avenue of weeping A willows that leads us on toward our goal. Twenty Chinese miles and more are covered before we near the Imperial summer home. Then in the distance a roof of gleaming tile, reflecting the rays of the morning sunlight, is seen, and soon, swinging around the last sharp bend and passing beneath a spreading wooden archway, we find ourselves in a spacious open courtyard. Here we are greeted by two huge, bronze, guardian lions. In days, not at all remote, when imperialism held sway in China, few save the Empress Dowager herself and a few court favorites were permitted to participate in the pleasures of this romantic spot; but now gates and doors formerly closed to the public are wide ftung on their hinges. Finding ourselves within the walls of the first inner courtyard, which is dotted with trees and rows of handsome statuary, we stand before an imposing structure formerly used by the Empress Dowager as her Imperial Audience Hall Here she met the great officials of state, and here she received the foreign diplomats and their wives. We can learn little of the grandeur of this fine hall, for, like most of the other pavilions within the palace grounds, its great doors are sealed, and only a peep here and there can be had through the heavily latticed windows. Passing this large throne hall, and tuming abruptly to the left we follow a winding pathway, bordered by flowering shrubs and trees, down to the shores of the lovely lake The scene spread out before us is enchanting. All that the lavish hand of nature could bestow, combined with the best that human art and skill could devise, seems here to be brought together to enrich the spot and make it beautiful Gardens and flowers, hills and groves, mountains and lakes, islands and bridges, temples and pagodas, in all their natural and artistic splendor, make a rare setting for the elegant verandahed pavilions and spacious courtyards which compose the Imperial summer home. Skirting the whole northern end of the lake, the K'un Ming Hy, which is more than four miles in circumference, is a richly carved marble balustrade. From these marble terraces charming views can be had of the Dan Shou Shan and of the whole glorious landscape. Our photo-study shows the Summer Palace hill with its mammolh pagoda and other interesting temples and pavilions from a comer of this wonderful terrace. [See paqes 20, 46, 58, 68, 80, 90, 94, 104, 126, 118, and 130.]