The walls form a square of about 3 miles to the side, and
there are suburbs besides.
The streets are broad and straight, laid out at
right angles, with a pavement of square flags very perfectly laid,
slightly convex and drained at each side. The numerous commemorative
arches are sculptured with skill; there is much display of artistic
taste; and the people are remarkably civil to foreigners. This
characterizes the whole province; and an air of wealth and refinement
prevails even in the rural districts. The plain round Ch'eng-tu fu is
about 90 miles in length (S.E. to N.W.), by 40 miles in width, with a
copious irrigation and great fertility, so that in wealth and population
it stands almost unrivalled. (Letter VII. pp. 48-66.)
[Illustration: PLAN OF CHENG-TU.
Eglises ou Etablissements francais des "Missions etrangeres"
Reproduction d'une carte chinoise]
[Mr. Baber (Travels, p. 26) gives the following information regarding
the population of Ch'eng-tu: "The census of 1877 returned the number of
families at about 70,000, and the total population at 330,000 - 190,000
being males and 140,000 females; but probably the extensive suburb was not
included in the enumeration. Perhaps 350,000 would be a fair total
estimate." It is the seat of the Viceroy of the Sze-ch'wan province. Mr.
Hosie says (Three Years in Western China, p. 86): "It is without
exception the finest city I have seen in China; Peking and Canton will not
bear comparison with it." Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, II.
p. 4): "The city of Ch'eng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, somewhat
irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall, in a perfect state of
repair. In this there are eight bastions, four being pierced by gates."
"It is one of the largest of Chinese cities, having a circuit of about 12
miles." (Baber, p. 26.) "It is now three and a half miles long by about
two and a half miles broad, the longest side lying about east-south-east,
and west-north-west, so that its compass in the present day is about 12
miles." (Captain Gill, II. p. 4.) - H.C.]
NOTE 2. - Ramusio is more particular: "Through the city flow many great
rivers, which come down from distant mountains, and run winding about
through many parts of the city. These rivers vary in width from half a
mile to 200 paces, and are very deep. Across them are built many bridges
of stone," etc. "And after passing the city these rivers unite and form
one immense river called Kian," etc. Here we have the Great River or
KIANG, Kian (Quian) as in Ramusio, or KIANG-SHUI, "Waters of the Kiang,"
as in the text. So Pauthier explains. [Mr. Baber remarks at Ch'eng-tu
(Travels, p. 28): "When all allowance is made for the diminution of
the river, one cannot help surmising that Marco Polo must have felt
reluctant to call it the Chiang-Sui or 'Yangtzu waterway.' He was,
however, correct enough, as usual, for the Chinese consider it to be the
main upper stream of the Yangtzu." - H.C.] Though our Geographies give the
specific names of Wen and Min to the great branch which flows by Ch'eng-tu
fu, and treat the Tibetan branch which flows through northern Yunnan under
the name of Kin Sha or "Golden Sand," as the main river, the Chinese seem
always to have regarded the former as the true Kiang; as may be seen in
Ritter (IV. 650) and Martini. The latter describes the city as quite
insulated by the ramifications of the river, from which channels and
canals pass all about it, adorned with many quays and bridges of stone.
The numerous channels in reuniting form two rivers, one the Min, and the
other the To-Kiang, which also joins the Yangtzu at Lu-chau.
[In his Introductory Essay to Captain Gill's River of Golden Sand,
Colonel Yule (p. 37) writes: "Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the
many branches of the river which ramify through the plain of Ch'eng-tu, no
one now passes through the city at all corresponding in magnitude to that
which Marco Polo describes, about 1283, as running through the midst of
Sin-da-fu, 'a good half-mile wide, and very deep withal.' The largest
branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but does not exceed
a hundred yards in width; and though it is crossed by a covered bridge
with huxters' booths, more or less in the style described by Polo, it
necessarily falls far short of his great bridge of half a mile in length.
Captain Gill suggests that a change may have taken place in the last five
(this should be six) centuries, owing to the deepening of the
river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent draining of the
latter. But I should think it more probable that the ramification of
channels round Ch'eng-tu, which is so conspicuous even on a small general
map of China, like that which accompanies this work, is in great part due
to art; that the mass of the river has been drawn off to irrigate the
plain; and that thus the wide river, which in the 13th century may have
passed through the city, no unworthy representative of the mighty Kiang,
has long since ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have pointed out
briefly that the fact, which Baron Richthofen attests, of an actual
bifurcation of waters on a large scale taking place in the plain of
Ch'eng-tu - one arm 'branching east to form the To' (as in the terse
indication of the Yue-Kung) - viz. the To Kiang or Chung-Kiang flowing
south-east to join the great river at Lu-chau, whilst another flows south
to Sue-chau or Swi-fu, does render change in the distribution of the waters
about the city highly credible."] [See Irrigation of the Ch'eng-tu
Plain, by Joshua Vale, China Inland Mission in Jour.
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