Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 57 (Color Image)

0057	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

SIAIVT 27

others being Peking (the north), Nanking (the

south), L'oyang (the east). It is now again offi-

cially called by its ancient name of Ch'angan,

though the people still keep to Sian. (Other ways

of describing it are Signan and Hsi-an-fu.) Twenty

years previously there was a walled Manchu city

on the east side ; but the Manchus were massacred

after the republic was declared, and their city was

pulled down. There is now a fine " mali ", some

30 or 40 yards wide, from the east gate to

the Bell Tower, and on either side are long two-

storied buildings with Chinese roofs. The Bell

Tower, in the centre of the city, was used in former

days for fire-alarms. It is now supposed to ring

the hours, though it seldom does. The drum

tower had a drum, which was beaten in case of

attacks.

From Mr. F. E. S. Newman (a great-nephew of

the Cardinal and a high authority on things

Chinese) Pereira learnt that Sian, which was built

500 B. c., was a city of some 30 miles in circum-

ference at the time of the Han dynasty, and had

a population of about 4,000,000. Later it was

destroyed ; but it rose again to prominence under

the T'angs. At present the population is officially

estimated at 110,000, and is probably over a

quarter of a million at most, including suburbs,

though a missionary put it at a million.

Near Sian are the tombs of the T'ang dynasty,

A.D. 618 to 907. In the old days these tombs

extended for from 5 to 10 li underground by

different passages. To prevent the evil spirits

following the Imperial carcases, wives and ser-

vants were buried alive with the corpse, and the

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