The White Dagoba is conspicuous in all Peking views; it is within the gardens which are reserved for the court, and was built by the first emperor of the present dynasty as a shrine for a very fine Buddha. The White Dagoba is regarded as the palladium of the Empire, and stands at the very centre of the loveliest part of the palace grounds. A little farther to the west is found the finest pailow in Peking, made of very beautiful encaustic tiles; and behind a neighboring hillock rests the celebrated dragon screen, sixty feet long and twenty feet high; it was built to protect the library, which was unfortunately burned during the occupation of the allied forces in 1900.
A noticeable feature is the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas, all of glittering Imperial yellow, the walls covered with animals and small images of Buddha. The three lakes, northern, middle, and southern, are a little over two miles long; a beautiful marble bridge connects the northern with the middle lake.
The White Pagoda of the Yellow Temple
The Winter or Skating Palace was distinctive for the finest wood carvings in China; these were also burned by accident in 1900. A large pavilion, surrounded by a circular wall, is near the marble bridge. In this pavilion is the throne, and it was there audience was given to several European ambassadors in 1893; there also the Emperor puts on mourning garments,—when, for instance, he had to grieve for his father, Prince Chan. At the northeast corner of the palace stands the fine yellow-tiled temple, with an imposing entrance; it has large gates, within the outer of which are two very quaint pavilions. Four or five roofs are piled, one on the other, and these can be distinctly seen from outside the walls of the Forbidden City. This brief outline may give one a little idea of what the public are deprived of seeing. Most of the buildings of the Forbidden City are yellow-tiled, as are also the walls.
The Summer Palace is the only one of the Peking buildings that dates from the present Manchu dynasty. There had previously been a palace there, but it had a long while since fallen into decay. It is said to have had lovely gardens, and many canals winding in and out, while in other places little miniature lakes are formed. The principal palace is attractive and rises on an eminence, but there are pavilions and lesser buildings scattered about. The present palace is, however, very inferior to those royal residences of olden times; it suffered greatly in 1900; the Russian soldiers seemed to take delight in destroying works of art and historic buildings. Some of the marble bridges are very effective, and there is a marble boat, not in itself very beautiful, but a picturesque feature as it lay anchored by the lake. We saw it from a high hill beyond the Emperor's palace, where is located a Buddhist pagoda. We had a view of the palace with its enclosure and its minor buildings.
This was one feature seen during an excursion which a friend and I took, escorted by a guide and a picnic luncheon basket on Saturday, May 25th. We left the hotel early for a six-mile drive, passing first through the crowded streets, again noting the dusty way of the Imperial City, which wound around near the walls of the Forbidden City, every pinnacle and roof gleaming in the morning light. Leaving the outskirts of the town, the country view was the pleasantest we had seen. Our road lay alongside of the canal, where there were more trees and less dust.
On the way we first visited the Five Pagoda Buddhist Temple, which seems to belong to a different world from that of to-day. It is a square mass of masonry fifty feet high, covered with old colored tiles and with beautiful reliefs of camels. On its flat top there are five pagodas, each eleven stories high; also, adjacent to it, a very elegant square pagoda, and, in front of it, what seems like the top of another large pagoda. Farther on, we saw the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple; it is not remarkable architecturally, and there are two large spacious buildings with a court between them. One of them consists of two stories, in both of which is a large room lined with little compartments containing small gilt Buddhas. The guide said there was a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine already, and the thousandth place was reserved for the Dowager Empress when she died.
