Untitled

172
EAST ASIA.
and 10 feet in circumference. The blocks of marble required
for these and other
imperial tombs were conveyed along specially constructed roads on huge trucks
with sixteen wheels, and drawn by six hundred mules.
"
Tientsin that is, The Ford of Heaven "is the seaport not only of Pechili, but
also of Mongolia and the Russian province
of Transbaikalia. It is happily situated
in an extremely fertile district, on a navigable river at the converging point of
several natural highways formed by
the rivers of the interior. Thanks to the
development of its foreign trade, it has become one of the great cities of China,
already surpassing the imperial capital itself in population, which, according to the
consular reports,
is now close upon a million. The imports are chiefly rice, woven
goods, opium, European hardware, taken in exchange for raw cotton and wool,
skins, furs, plaited straw, and camel's hair. Here are the Government granaries
for the supply of Peking, and the salt depot for the whole of North China. After
Fig. 76.
THE LOWER PEI-HO.
S.-ale 1 : 1,550,000.
1 17 m II740'
. 12
Miles.
Tientsin became a treaty port in 1858, most of the navigation of the Pe'i-ho, here
commonly known as the Hai-ho, or " Ocean River," fell into the hands of the
English ; but since then the Chinese have gradually recovered the first place.
Besides the river junks the natives now own vessels of the European type, and even
numerous steamers, which ply daily on the Pe'i-ho above and below Tientsin.
A few miles farther down is the European settlement of Tsckhulin, in its street
architecture and general appearance quite a Western town, where nearly all Euro-
peans reside who have business relations with Tientsin. Even in the Chinese city
there are several buildings in the European style, amongst them the new hospital
and the ruins of the Roman Catholic cathedral, destroyed during the terrible out-
break of 1870, when all the French priests and nuns with one exception, besides
some other foreigners, were massacred. A cotton-spinning factory has here been
recently established, and some 60 miles to the north-east a horse tramway now connects