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238
EAST ASIA.
enormous embankment skirting the shore, erected at an unknown period.
It is
faced seawards by dressed stone slabs bound together with iron cramps, and
stretches from the Hangchew estuary to the Ningpo River. But Shaohing,
capital of this unhealthy region, is a decayed place, although still distinguished
by the culture of its inhabitants. Some two thousand years ago it was the capital
of a state which comprised all the south-eastern lands from Kiangsu to Canton.
Outside the wall is still shown a tomb, said to be that of the Emperor
Fig.
110. NINGPO AND TSINHAI.
Scale 1 : 220,000.
to 10 Feet. 16 to 32 Feet. 32 Feet and upwards.
6 Miles.
Yu. Here
is prepared the exquisite perfumed liqueur known us " Shaohing wine," compared
by travellers to Sauterne. It is extracted from a species of rice.
A walled city on the north side of Chekiang Bay still bears the name of Kampu,
although the true Kampu (Ganfu, Gampu) spoken of by Marco Polo is supposed
to lie submerged in the waters of the bay. Here the sea has encroached consider-
ably on the coast, and nowhere else docs the eagre, or bore, cause such disasters.
From a distance it seems like a white cable stretched across the bay, but it advances
with a velocity of over 30 feet per second, constantly increasing in size, and producing
a din like loud peals of thunder. Its daily attacks require the embankments
to be kept in constant repair, and during the reign of Kien-lung (1736 96)
the hydraulic works along Hangchew Bay cost over 2,000,000. All the culti-