Jean-Baptiste Du Halde, A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, 1738.

Of the Great Wall, separating China from Tartary

This celebrated Wall was built by the famous Emperor Tsin Sh-whang, with a politic view, 221 years before Christ. It bounds China on the north, and defends it against the neighboring Tartars, who being at that time divided into various nations, under different princes, could only incommode it by sudden inroads and plunderings. There was then no instance of such a re-union among the western Tartars, as happened about the beginning of the 13th century, when they conquered China. No work in the world is equal to this; it is continued along three large provinces, viz. Pecheli, Shansi, and Shensi, built often in places which seem inaccessible, and strengthened with a series of forts erected at no less expense. The beginning of this wall is a large bulwark of stone, raised in the sea, to the east of Peking, and almost in the same latitude, being 40 d. 2 m. and 6 f. in the province of Pecheli; it is well terrassed, and cased with brick, and is as high, and much broader, than the walls of the cities of the empire usually are, that is, from 20 to 25 feet in height.

P. Regis, and the other missionaries, who assisted him in making the map of the provinces, have often, on the top of it, applied he cord to measure the bases of triangles, and taken the bearings of points at a distance; they always found it well paved, and wide enough for 5 or 6 horsemen to march abreast with ease. The gates of the Great Wall are defended on the side of China, by pretty large forts. The first of them to the east is called Shangbayuan, it stands near the wall, which extends, from the bulwark before-mentioned, the space of a league, along [20] a country perfectly level, and does not begin to ascend the mountain, till after it has passed that place. It was the Chinese general commanding in this part, who first called in the Tartars of the province of Lyautong, which lies beyond it. And by this gave them an opportunity of conquering China, notwithstanding the confidence the Chinese had in their mutual ramparts, which they thought impregnable. Such is the vicissitude of human affairs, that outward defenses, and all the strength of the state, serve only to produce more sudden revolutions, and even hasten its ruin, when unsupported by virtue in the subject, and vigilance in the prince.

The other forts, no less remarkable, are Hifongkew, in 40 degrees, 26 minutes Tushekew in 41 degrees, 19 minutes, 20 sec. Changkyakew, in 40, 5, 15, two noted passes by which the Tartars, who are subject to China, come to Peking; and Kupekew, in 40, 43, 15 this last was the way the Emperor Kangxi usually took to go to Jehoel in Tartary. The place is above 40 leagues north-eastward from Peking. About it are nothing but mountains, where he used to take the diversion of hunting. The road hither from Peking is a grand work, and level as bowling-green.

Here that great prince resided above one half of the year, governing his vast empire all the while with the same ease as a father governs his family. If he returned late from hunting, he never went to rest till he had dispatched all the petitions, and next morning rose against before daybreak. It was surprising to see him at the age of sixty, often when it showered very hard, on horseback, in the midst of his guards, clothed as thinly as themselves, laden with his bow on one side and his quiver on the other, without offering to make use of an empty chaise which followed him.

All these forts, which are in the province of Pecheli, are made of earth, cased on both sides with brick; but when one leaves that province and enters Shansi, towards Tyenchingwey, he wall begins to be only of earth, is without battlements, nor so much as plastered, grows narrow, and is not above 15 feet in height. However, after one has passed Shaukew in 40, 19, which is the place the Russians come to directly from Selinghinskoi, it is cased on the outside with brick; some of its towers also are very large, and built of brick, on a foundation of stone; but it does not always continue the same. The river Whanho, which has sentry-boxes along its banks, where soldiers keep guard day and night, supplies the place of the Great Wall towards the borders of Shansi and Shensi.

Beyond the Whangho, westward, in the province of Shensi, the wall is only of earth, low, narrow, and sometimes of gravel (for it stands in a gravelly country) and in some places quite ruined. But then the entrance is defended by several considerable cities, as Yulinghuan, in 38, 18, Ninghya, 18, 32, 8. Lyangchew, in 37, 59. Kanchew in 39, Suchew and Sining, at which places general officers are posted with bodies of troops. He who resides at Kanchew is the generalissimo, whom they name Titu; the rest are only Lieutenant-generals called Tsongping.

Ninghya is the best of these cities. It is handsomer, richer and better built than most cities of the empire. it is also pretty large; for taking in both the enclosures, that are inhabited, it is at least 15 Chinese li in compass. The industry of the inhabitants has rendered the country about it fertile; for by means of canals and sluices which they have made, they can convey the waters of the Whanghe into the lands when they stand in need of moisture. There are salt-springs in the ditches of the town, from which they make salt. Here are also manufactures of woolen goods and carpets, after the Turkish fashion. The mountains are so high and almost perpendicularly steep in the district of Ninghya, that 7 or 8 leagues from the city they serve instead of the Great Wall, for the space of about 10 leagues. Suchew, which lies in 39, 45, 40 is a pretty large city; but not equal to Ninghya, either in beauty or trade, tho it commands the garrison at Hyayuqian, (through which the road lies to Hami) and several districts of the Kalka Tartars.

The wall in these parts is only of earth, but kept in better repair than elsewhere, because of the neighborhood of the people of Hami, who have submitted to the emperor within these few years. The walls of Hyayuquan are not of brick, but they are well guarded with soldiers who defend this important pass.

The wall ends when you have passed the little city Chwanglan, so named because it stands where two roads meet, one whereof is in the valley which goes by Langchew or Hyayuquan, and the other upon the mountains which reach to Sinningchew; but instead of a wall there is a pretty broad trench dug on purpose, excepting in the narrow passes near to Sining, which are walled like those in the province of Shensi. The city of Sining, lying in 36, 59, is not large but exceeds Ninghya in trade. All the furs that come from the western Tartary, are fold in this town, or in a neighboring borough called Topa. This last place is of more wroth than a large city, although it is neither well built nor well situated; for it abounds with almost all sorts of foreign as well as Chinese commodities, and with various kinds of drugs, as saffron, dates, coffee, etc.

When P. Regis was at Topa making the map of that country, he met with three or four Armenian Catholics, who kept shop there, and sold beautiful skins, which they fetched from Tartary. The houses and shops are much dearer in this borough than in the city of Sining, which is but four [21] leagues distant. It is remarkable, that it does not depend on the mandarins of Sining, but on a lama-bonza, who is always one of the race to which that territory belongs. This family is the most considerable of the nation called Sifan or Tufan, whereof I shall give a more ample account hereafter.

The emperors of the former race, thinking to procure a more lasting repose to the nation, by making the place, where they kept their court, impregnable, had built a second wall as strong and surprising as the first, which still remains entire in Pecheli, 76 li from Peking, at one of the principal gates named Nankew, 10 leagues from thence, on the side of a high mountain, by which the road leads to Swenwhafu, and from thence to Taytong in the province of Shensi. This is a small city fortified with several walls, that rise and fall according to the surface of the mountains whereon they are built, and surprise the eye with the boldness of their structure.

This wall, which is called the inner Great Wall, joins the other to the north of Peking, near Swenwhafu, where there is a garrison; and is continued along the western part of the province at Pecheli, extending into that of Shansi, where it is fallen to ruin in several places. Among the plans of cities inserted towards the middle of this volume, there is one part of the Great Wall on the side of Yongpingfu.

When we consider the number of strong places and forts built between these two walls, with the other words of the eastern side, we cannot but admire the care and efforts of the Chinese, who seem to have made use of all the means, which human forecast could suggest, for the defense of their kingdom, and for preserving the public tranquility,