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 11-1/2 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.