still stand unrivalled by anything the Western world has to show,
if one except the Siberian Railway. The Great Wan is an effete relic
no longer of use; and it appears to be satire on human foresight
that the Grand Canal should have been built by the very people
whom the Great Wall was intended to exclude from China. The canal
is as useful to-day as it was six centuries ago, and remains the
chief glory of the Mongol dynasty.

Kublai having set up his throne in the north, and completed the
conquest of the eighteen provinces, ordered the construction of
this magnificent waterway,
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which extends 800 miles from Peking to Hangchow and connects with
other waterways which put the northern capital in roundabout
communication with provinces of the extreme south. His object was
to tap the rice-fields of Central China and obtain a food supply
which could not be interfered with by those daring sea-robbers,
the redoubtable Japanese, who had destroyed his fleets and rendered
abortive his attempt at conquest. Of the Great Wall, it may be said
that the oppression inseparable from its construction hastened
the overthrow of the house of its builder. The same is probably
true of the Grand Canal. The myriads of unpaid labourers who were
drafted by _corvée_ from among the Chinese people subsequently
enlisted, they or their children, under the revolutionary banner
which expelled the oppressive Mongols.

Another port in this province which we cannot pass without an admiring
glance, is Chefoo (Chifu). On a fine hill rising from the sea wave the
flags of several nations; in the harbour is a cluster of islands; and
above the settlement another noble hill rears its head crowned with