HANGCHAU AND ITS ENVIRONS.
Hangchau, the capital of the province, lies in the northern part, less than a mile from the Tsientang. The velocity of this stream indicates a rapid descent of the country towards the ocean, but it discharges very little silt; the tide rises six or seven feet opposite the city, and nearly thirty at the mouth.
Only a moiety of the inhabitants reside within the walls of the city, the suburbs and the waters around them supporting a large population. A portion of the space in the north-western part is walled off for the accommodation of the Manchu garrison, which consists of 7,000 troops. The governor-general of Chehkiang and Fuhkien has an official house here, as well, also, as the governor of the province, but since the increased importance of Fuhchau, he seldom resides in this city; these, with their courts and troops, in addition to the great trade passing through, render it one of the richest and most important cities in the empire. The position is the most picturesque of any of the numerous localities selected by the Chinese for their capital. It lies in full view of the ocean, and from the hill-top in the centre a wide view of the plains south and east is obtained. The charming lake, Si Hu, and the numerous houses on its shores, with the varied scenery of the hills, copses, glades, and river banks, all highly cultivated, within a radius of ten miles, fully bear out the praises of the Chinese as to its singular beauty. Marco Polo lavishes all his admiration upon its size, riches, manufactures, and government, from which it is to be inferred that it suffered little in the Mongolian conquest. He visited the place when governor of Yangchau in 1286, and enthusiastically describes it as “beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world.”[54] The Chinese have a proverb—Shang yu tien tang: Hia yu Su Hang—the purport of which is that Hangchau and Suchau are fully equal to paradise; but the comparison of the Venetian traveller gives one a poorer idea of the European cities of his day, than it does of the magnificence of the Chinese, to those who have seen them. The streets are well-paved, ornamented with numerous honorary tablets erected to the memory of distinguished individuals, and agreeably interrupting the passage through them. The long main street extending along the Grand Canal into and through the city, thence out by the Tsientang, was, before its ruthless demolition by the Tai-pings in 1863, probably one of the finest streets in the whole Empire. The shops and warehouses, in point of size and stock of goods contained in them, might vie with the best in London. In population, luxury, wealth, and influence this city rivals Suchau, and for excellence of manufactures probably exceeds the latter place. Were Hangchau easily reached by sea, and had it ample harbors, it would engross the trade of the eastern coast; but furious tides (running sometimes 11½ knots an hour); the bore jeoparding passage-boats and other small crafts; sand banks and quicksands;—these present insuperable difficulties to the commerce by the ocean.
This city was the metropolis of the country during the nine latter princes of the Sung dynasty (1129 to 1280), when the northern parts were under dominion of the tribe of Kin Tartars. One cause of celebrity is found in the beauty of its environs, especially those near the Si Hu, or West Lake, an irregular sheet of water about 12 miles in circuit. Barrow observes that “the natural and artificial beauties of this lake far exceeded anything we had hitherto had an opportunity of seeing in China. The mountains surrounding it were lofty, and broken into a variety of forms that were highly picturesque; and the valleys were richly clothed with trees of different kinds, among which three species were remarkably striking, not only by their intrinsic beauty, but also by the contrast they formed with themselves and the rest of the trees of the forest. These were the camphor and tallow trees, and the arbor vitæ. The bright, shining green foliage of the first, mingled with the purple leaves of the second, and over-topped by the stately tree of life, of the deepest green, produced a pleasing effect to the eye; and the landscape was rendered still more interesting to the mind by the very singular and diversified appearance of several thousand repositories of the dead upon the sloping sides of the inferior hills. Here, as well as elsewhere, the sombre and upright cypress was destined to be the melancholy companion of the tombs.
“Higher still, among the woods, avenues had been opened to admit of rows of small blue houses, exposed on white colonnades, which, on examination, were also found to be mansions of the dead. Naked coffins, of extraordinary thickness, were everywhere lying on the surface of the ground. The margins of the lake were studded with light aerial buildings, among which one of more solidity and greater extent than the rest was said to belong to the emperor. The grounds were inclosed with brick walls, and mostly planted with vegetables and fruit trees; but in some there appeared to be collections of such shrubs and flowers as are most esteemed in the country.”[55]
Staunton speaks of the lake as a beautiful sheet of water, perfectly pellucid, full of fish, in most places shallow, and ornamented with a great number of light and fanciful stone bridges, thrown across the arms of the lake as it runs up into the hills. A stone tower on the summit of a projecting headland attracted attention, from its presenting a different architecture from that usually seen in Chinese buildings. This tower, called the Lui Fung tah, lit. ‘Tower of the Thunder Peak’ (not Thundering Wind, as Staunton renders it), from the hill being at first owned by Mr. Lui, was built about A.D. 950, and is to-day a solid structure, though much ruined. It has now four stories, and is about 120 feet high; something like a regular order is still discernible in the moldering cornices. The legend of the White Snake is associated with this structure, and people constantly carry away pieces of its bricks as charms.
An interesting corroboration of this account is given by Polo, who says, “Inside the city there is a lake which has a compass of some 30 miles; and all around it are erected beautiful palaces and mansions, of the richest and most exquisite structure that you can imagine, belonging to the nobles of the city. There are also on its shores many abbeys and churches of the idolaters. In the middle of the lake are two islands, on each of which stands a rich, beautiful and spacious edifice, furnished in such a style as to seem fit for the palace of an emperor. And when any one of the citizens desired to hold a marriage feast, or to give any other entertainment, it used to be done at one of these palaces.”[56]
The splendor and size of the numerous Buddhist temples in and around Hangchau attracted travellers to the city more even than did its position; these shrines have, however, all been destroyed, and their thousands of priests driven away; the Tai-pings left no building untouched. The Yoh Miao stands near the north-west corner of the Si Hu, and contains the tombs of the patriot general Yoh Fi of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 1125), and his son, who were unjustly executed as traitors. Two conical mounds mark their resting places, and separated by a wall, but inside the inclosure are four iron statues cast in a kneeling posture and loaded with chains,—on his right Tsin Kwei and his wife, on the left a judge and general, who subserved Tsin Kwei’s hatred of Yoh Fi by their flagitious conduct. All four are here doing homage and penance to this just man whom they killed, and by the obloquy they receive serve as a warning to other traitors. In a temple, called Ting-tsz’ sz’, not far from the city, the party of the Dutch embassy were well lodged, and attended by three hundred priests. The establishment was in good repair, and besides two guardian monsters more than thirty feet high, near the entrance, contained five hundred images of the Buddhist Arhans, with miniature pagodas of bronze, of beautiful workmanship.
DESCRIPTION OF HANGCHAU.
Hangchau is better known abroad for manufactures of silk than for any other fabrics, but its position at the termination of the Canal may perhaps give its name to many articles which are not actually made there, for Huchau is now a greater dépôt for raw and woven silks. In the northern suburbs lies an irregular basin, forming the southern extremity of the Canal; but between the river and the basin there is no communication, so that all goods brought hither must be landed. The city contains, among other public buildings, a mosque, bearing an inscription in Arabic, stating that it is a “temple for Mussulmen, when travelling, who wish to consult the Koran.”[57] It is higher than the adjacent buildings, and adorned with a cupola, pierced with holes at short intervals. It was spared in 1863, as not being an idolatrous temple. There are also several others in the city, it being a stronghold of Islamism in China. Water communication exists between Hangchau and Yüyau, south-east through Shauhing, and thence to Ningpo, by means of which goods find their way to and from the capital. A good road also runs between the two former cities; indeed, elsewhere in the province the thoroughfares are very creditable; they are laid with broad slabs of granite and limestone, and lead over plains and hills in numberless directions.