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EAST ASIA.
way somewhat abruptly through side fissures down to the plains. In the highlands
comprised between the gorges of the Pe'i-ho and Wen-ho, which water the
Peking district, scarcely any summits reach an elevation of 6,700 feet, but south
of the Wen several rise to 8,000 and upwards, while according
to Bretschneider
the snowy peaks of the Siao-Uta'i-Shan (" Little Five-crested Mountain ") attain
an altitude of 12,000 feet.
The coast-line, which stretches for about 300 miles from the mouth of the
Liao-he to that of the Pe'i-ho, formerly ran parallel with the inland ranges, but
has gradually been modified by alluvial deposits. An extensive semicircle of
new lands has even been formed at some distance from the coast by the Laomu-ho,
which collects all the streams from the south-east corner of Mongolia. The whole
region of the Lower Pe'i-ho was at one time a marine basin, which has scarcely yet
been completely filled in by the sedimentary matter washed down from the interior.
Numerous lagoons or swamps still cover large tracts, and the slope of the land is
so slight that at times the whole country, for a space of 6,000 square miles, is
converted into a vast lake from 2 to 6 feet deep. On these occasions the crops are
destroyed, the land wasted by famine, the rivers and canals diverted from their
course. Thus the Wen-ho, which formerly formed the northern section of the
Grand Canal between Tientsin and the Yang-tze, has recently ceased to be navigable.
Nearly all the names of the villages bear evidence to the constant shifting of the
streams in this low-lying region.
The inhabitants refer the inundations to the anger of a black and green dragon,
who must be propitiated by offerings, while the Europeans attribute them, on
insufficient grounds, to a subsidence of the land. But the direct cause of the evil
must be traced to the destruction of the forests on the highlands where the streams
take their rise. The heavy summer rains, being no longer retained by the vegetation,
sweep in foaming torrents down the slopes to the Tientsin depression, where they
are collected too rapidly to be discharged through the single channel of the Pe'i-ho.
To the disappearance of the woods is also due the increased violence of the kua-
fung, or " dust storms," so destructive to the crops and injurious to the health of
the people. All these evils have driven the natives to emigrate in hundreds of
thousands to Mongolia and Manchuria, where they have formed many flourishing
settlements.
TOPOGRAPHY PEKING.
The chief city in the province is the imperial capital, Peking, pronounced
Peting or Betzing in the Mandarin dialect. The term means " Northern
Residence," in opposition to Nanking, the former " Southern Residence." It was
so named at the beginning of the fifteenth century by an emperor of the Ming
dynasty, but the name is known in China only to the learned. The people call it
simply Kingcheng, or " Residence," which is also the meaning of the official name
Kingtu. Amongst its numerous other designations was the Mongolian Khan-balik
(Cambuluc), or " City of the Khans," imposed upon it by the northern conquerors,
and introduced into Europe by Marco Polo.