Among interesting edifices is the _Tien-fung tah_ (_i.e._, Heaven-conferred pagoda), a hexagonal seven-storied tower upward of 160 feet high, which, according to the _Annals of Ningpo_, was first erected 1100 years ago, though during that period it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Upon the authority of this work, the tower was constructed before the city itself, and its preservation is considered as connected with the good luck of the place. The visitor mounts to the summit by a flight of narrow stone steps, ascending spirally within the walls. [Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS MA TSU-PU, NINGPO.] The most elegant and solid building of the city lies on the water’s edge outside the walls, between the East and Bridge gates; it is a temple dedicated to the marine goddess Ma Tsupu, and was founded by Fuhkien men in the 12th century, but the present structure was erected in 1680, and largely endowed. Its ornaments are elaborate and rich, and its appearance on festival days, gay and animated in an unusual degree. The lanterns and scrolls hanging from the ceiling attract attention by the curious devices and beautiful characters written and drawn on them in bright colors, while the walls are concealed by innumerable drawings. Chinhai, at the mouth of the river, is so situated by nature and fortified by art, that it commands the passage. Its environs were the scene of a severe engagement between the Chinese and English in October, 1841, on which occasion great slaughter was committed upon the imperial troops. The town lies at the foot of a hill on a tongue of land on the northern bank of the river, and is partly sheltered from the sea on the north by a dyke about three miles long, composed of large blocks of hewn granite, and proving an admirable defence in severe weather. The walls are twenty feet high and three miles in circumference, but the suburbs extend along the water, attracted by, and for the convenience of, the shipping. Merchant ships report here when proceeding up the river, along whose banks the scenery is diversified, while the water, as usual in China, presents a lively scene. Numerous ice-houses are seen constructed of thick stone walls twelve feet high, each having a door on one side and an incline on the other for the removal and introduction of the ice, and protected by straw and a heavily thatched roof.