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]