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EAST ASIA.
surrounding plains, which are admirably cultivated, are largely under millet, the
staple crop in Pechili. South-west of this place is Chingting,
near the Shensi
frontier, where iron images of Buddha are manufactured for all the northern pro-
vinces. The bronze idols in its temples are amongst
empire, and one of them is no less than 80 feet high.
THE SHANTUNG PENINSULA.
SHANTUNG is a geographical region entirely
the most remarkable in the
distinct from the rest of China.
This country of the " Eastern Hills," as the term means, consists of two detached
masses of mountains and hills, one of which projects
far seawards between the
Gulf of Pechili and the Yellow Sea, and is limited landwards by extensive alluvial
plains deposited in an old marine basin. In this direction the Hoang-ho has
shifted its course for ages, washing down its sedimentary matter at one time to the
north, at another to the south of the Shantung peninsula. In its general
outlines
this peninsula
resembles that of Liaotung, but is of larger
size. Its shores, visited
by European vessels for the first tim.e in 1793, on the occasion of Lord Macartney's
embassy to Peking, are indented by innumerable little inlets developing a series of
regular curves from headland to headland. Some of these headlands are continued
by banks and islets for a long distance into the shallow waters of the Yellow Sea.
The north coast of Shantung is even connected by a sort of half-submerged isthmus
with the southernmost extremity of Manchuria. The mean depth
of this marine
basin is only about 80 feet, yet most of the inlets of the peninsula are accessible
to Chinese craft. The facilities thus afforded for intercourse have largely contributed
to the development of the great natural resources of Shantung. The population is
said to be here denser even than in Belgium, and from the summit of many hills
the whole country as far as the eye can reach presents the aspect of a vast city
interspersed with garden plots. The natives are also more robust and energetic,
as well as of a more swarthy complexion, than those of the Hoang-ho and Yang-tze
lowlands. In the Chefu district and elsewhere they show many graves attributed
to a pre-Chinese race.
The Shantung highlands may be regarded as the remains of a plateau denuded
and cut up in all directions by small streams. In the north a series of regular
rounded eminences stretch along the coast, but nowhere reach an elevation of 3,400
feet. The mean altitude is lower in the south, although here the peninsula,
properly so called, culminates with the Lo-shan, an isolated peak rising 3,550 feet
above the neighbouring island-studded bay. But towards the west the Ta-shan, or
"Great Mountain," famous in Chinese mythology, attains a height of 5,100 feet
close to the plains of the Hoang-ho. Ta-shan is the most sacred of the five holy
mountains of the empire, the " beneficent king," the " equal of heaven," the " con-
troller of births and deaths," the " arbiter of human destinies." Confucius, born
in the neighbourhood, vainly attempted to reach its summit, a temple now marking
the spot where he stopped short. Since then the ascent has been rendered easy
by a good paved road 12 miles long, with broad shady steps, convenient landing-