United States or Egypt ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
This, with the Shanghai-kuan near the sea, and the Yuamin-kuan, on the Nankow pass, are the principal gateways in this “wall of ten thousand li,” which, until forced by Yengiz Khan, protected the empire from the Mongolian nomads for a period of fourteen hundred years. In its present condition the Great Wall belongs to various epochs.
Foreigners visiting Pekin and desiring to see the Great Wall are usually taken to Nankow, and gravely told they have attained the object they seek.
We left in the morning for the Nankow Hotel, where we were to pass the night. On our way to the Peking station, we saw the Emperor, en route from his Summer Palace to the city, in a yellow silk sedan chair, numerously attended by persons also robed in yellow. After luncheon at Nankow, we took sedan chairs ourselves for a twenty-six-mile ride to the Great Wall through the Nankow Pass.
At the grand mountain gateway of Nankow you pass under the Great Wall, which crosses the road at right angles, and as you slowly steam across the plateau on the outer side, you see it reappearing from time to time like a huge snake winding along the ridges. Old wall, new railway; which will serve China best?
For a long time the assailants were kept at bay, but one fortress after another fell into their hands, and finally the capture of the Nankow pass by Che-pee, one of Genghis Khan's generals, laid Pekin at their mercy. There is a tradition that the loss of the first line of northern forts was due to a woman.
Peking is set in the middle of the large plain that stretches one hundred miles from the Gulf of Pechihli to the Pass of Nankow. On the north it is flanked by low hills, thus happily excluding all evil influences, but it is open to the good, that always come from the south.
The first gateway or arch we passed through was profusely decorated, having as a frieze a row of six Buddhas to right and left, and large Chinese figures below. Farther on, we came to another gateway, and then to another, the Pa-ta-ling, thirteen miles from Nankow and the top of the Nankow Pass.
Word Of The Day