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286
EAST ASIA.
same way furnished with every means of defence, and may in a moment be cut off
from the rest of the city.
This quarter includes the Yamun ( Yamen)
that is, the
seat of the administration with its courts and offices, besides gardens and parks,
sometimes of considerable extent. But although the Chinese is
quarter much more
animated, the trading classes still prefer the open suburbs beyond the outer walls,
where they are free from the police and military regulations, and where access and
egress are permitted throughout the night. These suburbs, often stretching for
miles along the roads and canals, become themselves real towns, and thus is social
life gradually developed. During the late troubles most of these suburbs com-
pletely disappeared, but the people soon returned to the old sites, and many of
their environs have already become more important than the cities themselves. The
Fig. 138. SINOAN-FO.
Scale 1 : 40,000.
1,100 Yards.
houses mere frames of light wood and bamboo, with paper adornments are soon
rebuilt ; nor are monumental piles anywhere found, such as those met with in
European cities. Hence earthquakes are comparatively harmless, while fires
spread rapidly amid these flimsy structures. On this account the southern gate of
the city is usually closed in summer, " to keep out the fire-god."
The houses of the rich are generally very clean, and often transformed by
flowering plants to veritable conservatories ; but the towns are, as a rule, inde-
scribably filthy, in this respect forming a striking contrast to the well-kept fields.
Sanitary arrangements can scarcely be said to exist. Hence epidemics, and
especially small-pox, are far more frequent and fatal than in Europe ; while
elephantiasis, leprosy, and other endemics, due mainly to unclean habits, commit
fearful ravages on the seaboard, in the southern provinces and elsewhere. Pro-