Excerpt from The Recent Changes at Peking: And Recollections of Peking<br><br>The Peking plain consists of stratifi ed clays which turn to dust and cause dust storms. By these storms, when most violent, day is almost turned to night. Travellers, when they meet these storms, experience extreme in Convenience from the thick coating of dust which covers their clothing, faces and hands. At twenty miles, north of Tientsin, clumps of trees begin to varie gate the country, and this feature is continued all the way to Peking. The hills form a semi-circle round the city on the north, the east and the west. The scenery has already become more agreeable to the eye than the dusty plains further south.<br><br>On the hills there are many most attractive sites for temples. Springs in gullies hire and there originate streams which nourish groves of trees. Here monasteries are built and priests superintend the newly planted woods. From the Liau dynasty in the tenth century Buddhist temples have been built by eunuchs, princesses empresses, and superstitious Officers of the court. Pine trees are pointed out as being eight or nine centuries Old, and still growing in some of these temples.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.