without which the oceans could not be crossed, conceived
the idea of artificial inland waterways and dug a canal 600
miles long; who made mountain roads which, in the opinion of
Dr. S. Wells Williams, ``when new probably equalled in
engineering and construction anything of the kind ever built by
Romans;'' and who invented the arch to which our modern
architecture is so greatly indebted.

In the Great Bell Temple two miles from Peking is one of
the wonderful bells of the world. It is fourteen feet high,
thirty-four feet in circumference at the rim, nine inches thick
and weighs 120,000 pounds. It is literally covered inside and
out with Chinese characters consisting of extracts from the
sacred writings, and the Rev. Dr. John Wherry, who is an
expert in the Chinese language, says that there is ``not one
imperfect character among them.'' The bell when struck by
the big wooden clapper emits a deep musical note that can be
heard for miles. Such a magnificent bell vividly illustrates
the stage of civilization reached by the Chinese while Europe
was comparatively barbarous, for the bell was cast as far back
as 1406 in the reign of Yung-loh, and the present temple buildings
were erected about it in 1578. The Germans began using
paper in 1190, but Sven Hedin found Chinese paper 1,650
years old and there is evidence that paper was in common use
by the Chinese 150 years before Christ. Until a few hundred
years ago, European business was conducted on the basis of
coin or barter. But long before that, the Chinese had banks
and issued bills of exchange. There has recently been placed
in the British Museum a bank-note issued by Hung-Wu, Emperor
of China, in 1368.