Unlike the walls of most Chinese cities, those of Peking are kept in perfect order.
Viewed from the walls Peking looks like a city of gardens.
From the date when Mr Hart took up his duties at Peking, in 1863, he unceasingly devoted the whole of his energies to the work of the department, with the result that the revenue grew from upwards of eight million taels to nearly twenty-seven million, collected at the thirty-two treaty ports, and the customs staff, which in 1864 numbered 200, reached in 1901 a total of 57 0 4.
Kang-hi next ordered a similar map to be made of Tibet, the survey being executed by two lamas who were carefully trained as surveyors by the Jesuits at Peking.
The word itself represents the Mongol Khan-Balik, "the city of the khan," or emperor, the title by which Peking continues, more or less, to be known to the Mongols and other northern Asiatics.