Asia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Mongols -- History; Polo, Marco, 1254-1323?; Voyages and travels
[Miss E. Scidmore writes (_China_, p. 294): “There are only
three wonders of the world in China—The Demons at Tungchow, the
Thunder at Lungchow, and the Great Tide at Hangchow, the last,
the greatest of all, and a living wonder to this day of ‘the open
door,’ while its rivals are lost in myth and oblivion.... The Great
Bore charges up the narrowing river at a speed of ten and thirteen
miles an hour, with a roar that can be heard for an hour before it
arrives.”—H. C.]
NOTE 3.—For satisfactory elucidation as to what is or may have been
authentic in these statements, we shall have to wait for a correct
survey of Hang-chau and its neighbourhood. We have already seen
strong reason to suppose that _miles_ have been substituted for
_li_ in the circuits assigned both to the city and to the lake, and
we are yet more strongly impressed with the conviction that the
same substitution has been made here in regard to the canal on the
east of the city, as well as the streets and market-places spoken
of in the next paragraph.
Chinese plans of Hang-chau do show a large canal encircling the
city on the east and north, _i.e._, on the sides away from the
lake. In some of them this is represented like a ditch to the
rampart, but in others it is more detached. And the position of
the main street, with its parallel canal, does answer fairly to
the account in the next paragraph, setting aside the extravagant
dimensions.
The existence of the squares or market-places is alluded to
by Wassáf in a passage that we shall quote below; and the
_Masálak-al-Absár_ speaks of the main street running from end to
end of the city.
On this Mr. Moule says: “I have found no certain account of
market-squares, though the _Fang_,[2] of which a few still exist,
and a very large number are laid down in the Sung Map, mainly
grouped along the chief street, may perhaps represent them.... The
names of some of these (_Fang_) and of the _Sze_ or markets still
remain.”
Mr. Wylie sent Sir Henry Yule a tracing of the figures mentioned
in the footnote; it is worth while to append them, at least in
_diagram_.
No. 1. No 2. No 3.
++ ++
++ ╔═══╦═════╦═══╗
╔═══╦═══╗ ╔═══════════╗ ║ ║ _a_ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╠═══╬═════╬═══╣
+╠═══╬═══╣+ +╠═══════════╣+ ║ ║ _b_ ║ ║
+║ ║ ║+ +║ ║+ ╠═══╬═════╬═══╣
╚═══╩═══╝ ╚═══════════╝ ║ ║ _c_ ║ ║
++ ╚═══╩═════╩═══╝
++ ++
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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