Note 3, supra) Arulun TSAGHAN BALGASUN, and
Erchuegin LANGTING Balgasun." A valuable letter from Dr. Bushell enables me
now to indicate the position of Langtin: "The district through which the
river flows eastward from Shangtu is known to the Mongolians of the
present day by the name of Lang-tirh (Lang-ting'rh).... The ruins of
the city are marked on a Chinese map in my possession Pai-dseng-tzu, i.e.
'White City,' implying that it was formerly an Imperial residence. The
remains of the wall are 7 or 8 li in diameter, of stone, and situated
about 40 li north-north-west from Dolon-nor."
(Gerbillon in Astley, IV. 701-716; Klaproth, in J. As. ser. II. tom.
xi. 345-350; Schott, Die letzten Jahre der Mongolenherrschaft in China
(Berl. Acad. d. Wissensch. 1850, pp. 502-503); Huc's Tartary, etc., p.
seqq.; Cathay, 134, 261; S. Setzen, p. 115; Dr. S. W. Bushell,
Journey outside the Great Wall, in J. R. G. S. for 1874, and MS.
notes.)
One of the pavilions of the celebrated Yuen-ming-Yuen may give some idea
of the probable style, though not of the scale, of Kublai's Summer Palace.
Hiuen Tsang's account of the elaborate and fantastic ornamentation of the
famous Indian monasteries at Nalanda in Bahar, where Mr. Broadley has
lately made such remarkable discoveries, seems to indicate that these
fantasies of Burmese and Chinese architecture may have had a direct origin
in India, at a time when timber was still a principal material of
construction there:
