writes: "From T'ung-kwan to Si-ngan
fu, the road runs in a direction nearly due west, through a most lovely
section of country, having a range of high hills upon the south, and the
Wei River on the north. The road lies through one long orchard, and the
walled towns and cities lie thickly along, for the most part at a little
distance from the highway." Mr. Rockhill says (_Land of the Lamas_, pp.
19-20): "The road between T'ung-kwan and Si-ngan fu, a distance of 110
miles, is a fine highway--for China--with a ditch on either side, rows of
willow-trees here and there, and substantial stone bridges and culverts
over the little streams which cross it. The basin of the Wei ho, in which
this part of the province lies, has been for thousands of years one of the
granaries of China. It was the colour of its loess-covered soil, called
'yellow earth' by the Chinese, that suggested the use of yellow as the
colour sacred to imperial majesty. Wheat and sorghum are the principal
crops, but we saw also numerous paddy fields where flocks of flamingoes
were wading, and fruit-trees grew everywhere."--H.C.]

[Illustration: Reduced Facsimile of the celebrated Christian Inscription
of Singan fu in Chinese and Syrian Characters]

Kenjanfu, or, as Ramusio gives it, Quenzanfu, is SI-NGAN FU, or as it was
called in the days of its greatest fame, Chang-ngan, probably the most
celebrated city in Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most
potent dynasties. It was the metropolis of Shi Hwang-ti of the T'sin
Dynasty, properly the first emperor and whose conquests almost intersected
those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetes. It was, perhaps, the _Thinae_
of Claudius Ptolemy, as it was certainly the Khumdan[3] of the early
Mahomedans, and the site of flourishing Christian Churches in the 7th
century, as well as of the remarkable monument, the discovery of which a
thousand years later disclosed their forgotten existence.[4] _Kingchao-fu_
was the name which the city bore when the Mongol invasions brought China
into communication with the west, and Klaproth supposes that this was
modified by the Mongols into KENJANFU. Under the latter name it is
mentioned by Rashiduddin as the seat of one of the Twelve _Sings_ or great
provincial administrations, and we find it still known by this name in
Sharifuddin's history of Timur. The same name is traceable in the _Kansan_
of Odoric, which he calls the second best province in the world, and the
best p