Painful Era: China at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Author: Rose
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The streets of the city are narrow and winding, uneven, dirty, and stinking. The streets are always crowded with bustling crowds, and it is only near that the city has police to maintain public order. However, once a riot occurs, the role of these police has never been demonstrated. China has a clear European medieval style, with cities surrounded by walls, which remain intact and functional. The Chinese prefer to camp in fortresses protected by walls, and once there is a riot, they can retreat into the city for shelter. The streets of the city are narrow and winding, uneven, dirty, and stinking. In North China, the streets are filled with heavy and dull carts that can only carry people (in reality, they are pulled by donkeys). However, in the southern rice-growing areas, there are no donkeys, so people can only use hand-pushed carts or walk. Due to the lack of regulations for maintaining urban public transportation, people flock to the roads, making them almost impassable. Shops have counters in front of their shelves, and the stalls along the street are also made of wooden boxes and baskets; among them are also craftsmen carrying tools. As a result, the originally six-foot-wide streets become extremely crowded. If it were not for the government's regulation that a passage must be reserved in the middle of the road for their carriages, the street would definitely be completely blocked. The narrow streets are always crowded with bustling crowds, which gives foreign tourists the impression that there are really many Chinese people, and the population is very dense. However, most of the buildings in China are single-story flat houses, and except for Beijing, the area of other cities is not large. In Western descriptions, for the sake of literary effect, the population of China is blindly exaggerated. Moreover, without reliable statistical data, they can imagine the population of China at will. Until near, the city has police to maintain public order. Now, police in yellow khaki uniforms, holding batons, are patrolling the streets. However, when a riot occurs, the role of these police has never been demonstrated. The guards you see in Guangzhou, who are listless, barefoot, and have gentle expressions, cannot reflect the dignity and authority of the law. There is no normal water supply system in the city. If the city is near a river, then the people who fetch water will deliver untreated river water to each household as drinking water. The water poured from the buckets makes the stone steps by the river always wet. If the fetched water is very turbid, people will stir it with bamboo tubes with small holes and alum in it, and the water will become clear. There is no lighting system in the city either. When night falls, the streets are pitch black and eerie, with no one around. Before the introduction of kerosene lamps, the entire Chinese Empire commonly used paper lanterns with candles or peanut oil cups with cotton wicks for lighting. Due to the lack of good lighting conditions, people usually rest when the sun sets and work when the sun rises. Kerosene lamps have indeed brought great benefits to the family life of the vast masses of people, providing convenience for people to read or chat at night. Due to the lack of fuel, dry firewood has also become a commodity, sold in bundles. Countless small boats are piled high with firewood, regularly transporting them to Guangzhou and Hong Kong along the West River. The woodcutters cut down trees further and further along the waterway, and the extent of deforestation becomes higher and higher. On winter nights, people burn bran, wheat straw, branches, leaves, and weeds under the kang for warmth; in addition, they also place