Changing Chinese People - Western Image of China

Author: E.A. Ross (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: A Glimpse of China
China possesses many features of medieval Europe. All cities were walled, and to this day, these walls and gates remain intact and effectively serve their purpose. The Manchus, who ruled China, always stationed their military camps in fortified cities with walls, and in the event of sudden uprisings, they would retreat to these camps for refuge. The streets of the cities were narrow, winding, uneven, dirty, and foul-smelling. In Northern China, hard-surfaced carriages for passengers moved constantly along the streets, pulled by donkeys. However, in regions where rice was grown, people did not feed donkeys, so in these areas, people had to walk or use hand-pushed carts for transportation. There were almost no regulations for maintaining urban public transportation, so the streets were occupied by individual merchants, making them almost impassable. Shopkeepers set up counters in front of their shelves, while stalls made of baskets and winnowing baskets lined both sides of the streets. Artisans with tools filled the gaps, making a six-foot-wide street extremely crowded. If it were not for official regulations requiring a passage to be left for sedan chairs passing through, the streets would be even narrower. The narrow streets were always crowded, giving travelers the impression that the cities were densely populated and highly congested. The buildings in the cities were mostly single-story houses, except for Beijing, where other cities in China were relatively small. Foreign travelers, in pursuit of literary effect, arbitrarily exaggerated the population of Chinese cities in their travel accounts. These unreliable statistics were the result of travelers' random guesses. It was only recently that police were stationed in cities to maintain public order. They wore khaki uniforms and patrolled the streets with batons. However, their capabilities were never proven during riots. In Guangzhou, the soldiers people saw were listless, barefoot, and had gentle expressions. They absolutely could not embody the authority and dignity of the law. There was no public water supply in the cities. In cities located by rivers, untreated river water served as the residents' public water supply. Daily water carriers delivered the river water to households, and the water poured from buckets made the stone steps leading to the river wet all day long. When the carried water was too turbid to drink, people generally stirred it with bamboo tubes fitted with small holes and containing alum pieces, allowing the water to slowly clarify. P1-2