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Later, we passed through two imposing gateways, and noted the great thickness of the Wall which, broken off, showed a brick exterior filled with earth. The way through the native town assured us of the usual Chinese life and bazars, Shanhaikwan having only a small European population.
SHANHAIKWAN, May 29th: The following morning, we left for Shanhaikwan; we arrived in the evening, and went to a very comfortable railway hotel.
This is a favorite resort for the Summer guests of the Shanhaikwan Hotel. Peitaho, which is situated back of Shanhaikwan in the mountains, has a large Summer colony from Peking and Tientsin, many of whom own their homes. At Shanhaikwan we had the pleasure of meeting Judge and Mrs. Charles Smith of Manila, and listened to many interesting experiences connected with life in the Philippines.
This wall is a continuation of the one visited in Peking, and formerly ended at the sea-line in Shanhaikwan, but the ravages of time and the devastation of man have carried away much of it. We had left our chairs at a small place, said to be a Taoist temple, and had also passed the ruins of another temple, showing the isolated places selected by the early fathers for their centres of worship.
At the eleventh hour the Emperor Tsonching had sent a message to Wou Sankwei, begging him to come in all haste to save the capital; and that general, evacuating Ningyuen, and leaving a small garrison at Shanhaikwan, had begun his march for Pekin, when he learned that it had fallen and that the Ming dynasty had ceased to be.
The last years of Taitsong's life were spent in conducting repeated expeditions into the provinces of Shansi and Pechihli, but the strength of the fortresses of Ningyuen and Shanhaikwan on the Great Wall effectually prevented his renewing his attempt on Pekin.
He promptly took advantage of the divergence of opinion, and, crossing the frontier, drove the Chinese behind the Great Wall. Even that barrier would not have arrested his progress but for the stubborn resistance offered by the fortress of Ningyuen a town about seventy miles northeast of Shanhaikwan, once of great importance, but now, for many years past, in ruins.
Shanhaikwan is on the border between China and Manchuria. We had been in Manchuria all day with an uninteresting landscape as regards variety, plains, a few trees, and a little verdure stretched far away.
He exerted such an extraordinary influence over the Chinese subjects that they speedily settled down under his authority; revenue and trade increased, and the Manchu authority was maintained without a Tartar garrison, for Wou Sankwei's army was composed exclusively of Chinese, and its nucleus was formed by his old garrison of Ningyuen and Shanhaikwan.
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