Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/429

 place was Wo-foh-sze ; and the quarters of the monks there, though furnished with the usual simplicity, were wonderfully clean and well kept.

There are many institutions and objects of interest in Peking, but to describe even the most prominent among them would require a volume by itself.

The most remarkable, and perhaps the finest, monument in all China is the marble cenotaph erected over the robes and relics of the Banjin Lama of Thibet. This edifice stands in the grounds of the Hwang-She monastery, about a mile beyond the north wall of Peking. When on my way to inspect it I witnessed a review of the northern army on the Anting plain. Some thousands of troops, infantry as well as cavalry, were in the field, and at a distance they made a warlike and imposing show, but nearer examination always seems to me to alter one's ideas of the greatness of human institutions, and more especially so where Chinese are concerned. Thus a close view of one of their river gun-boats revealed to me that a stand of rifles which occupied a prominent place on its deck was all constructed of wood; and the ancient foes of China have more than once in the same way advanced with caution to surprise a tented camp, and dis- covered that the tents were but white-washed clay mounds in undisturbed possession of the field. Thus also on the Anting plain, beneath the flaunting banners, we found the men armed with the old matchlocks, or with bows and arrows, and carrying huge basket-work shields painted with the faces of ogres, to strike terror into the hearts of a foe. For all that, evidences of military reform were not altogether wanting. Thus there were modern field-pieces, modern rifles, fair target-practice, and above all, desperate efforts to maintain discipline and order. At the same time I could not help thinking of Le-hung-chang (to