"

Nearly all the trade with China is carried on at the Southern and
Eastern ports, and comparatively few of the foreign merchants in China
have ever been at Pekin, which was opened only a few years ago. But
the war with the allied powers, the humiliation of the government, the
successes of the rebels, and the threatened extinction of the ruling
dynasty, led to important changes of policy. The treaty of Tientsin,
in 1860, opened the empire as it had never been open before.
Foreigners could travel in China where they wished, for business or
pleasure, and the navigable rivers were declared free to foreign
boats. Pekin was opened to travelers but not to foreign merchants; but
it is probable that commerce will be carried to that city before long.
There is an extensive trade at Tientsin, ninety miles south of the
capital, and when it becomes necessary to carry it to the doors of the
palace of the Celestial ruler, the diplomats will not be slow to find
a sufficient pretext for it.

CHAPTER XXX.

The great cities of China are very much alike in their general
features. None of them have wide streets, except in the foreign
quarters, and none of them are clean; in their abundance of dirt they
can even excel New York, and it would be worth the while for the
rulers of the American metropolis to visit China and see how filthy a
city can be made without half trying. The most interesting city in
China is Pekin, for the reason that it has long been the capital, and
contains many monuments of the past greatness and the glorious history
of the Celestial empire. Its temples are massive, and show that the
Chinese, hundreds of years ago, were no mean architects; its walls
could resist any of the ordinary appliances of war before the
invention of artillery, and even the tombs of its rulers are monuments
of skill and patience that awaken the admiration of every beholder.
Throughout China Pekin is reverentially regarded, and in many
localities the man who has visited it is regarded as a hero. Though
the capital, it is the most northern city of large population in the
whole empire.

Pekin is divided into the Chinese city and the Tartar one, the
division was made at the time of the Tartar conquest, and for many
years the two people refused to associate freely. A wall separates the
cities; the gates through it are closed at night, and only opened when
sufficient reason is given. If the party who desires to pass the gate
can give no