The Pei Hai, or North Sea
A GOLDEN island on a golden sea - such, according to popular legend, is this most beautiful of all the famous pleasure grounds of the capital. The Pei Hai is one of three charming artificial lakes known as the San Hai, or "Three Seas," which run from the north to the south along the entire western section of the Imperial City. The three lakes, which are supplied with water from the famous Jade Fountain in the Western Hills, date back to the days of the Great Khan, and are over a mile in length. In and around these lakes, are to be found some of the most beautiful objects and spots in the capital. Here for more than six centuries the great monarchs of China have built their domes of pleasure, and here by the rippling waters of the lake have they carried on their lordly revelries. The famous "Jade Rainbow Bridge," with its nine arches of chiseled marble, spans the waters of the Chung Hai, and separates the Pei Hai from the Chung Hai and the South Sea Palace. From this marble bridge the view is one of surpassing loveliness. At our feet lie the sparkling waters of the beautiful "North Sea," its banks shaded by groves of trees, while here and there float lotuses, "lazily grand, with their dense growth of leatherlike leaves and solitary blossoms rising above them in majestic isolation the very ernbodiment of the drowsy summer air, the very essence of repose." Spanning these quiet waters, and connecting the "Golden Island" with the mainland. is a graceful marble bridge, with a picturesque pailou on either end Beyond these, rising tier upon tier, are the glittering, multicolored roofs of temples and palaces; while above all, and overshadowing all, like a great "phantom lotus bud in the sunshine," with its lofty spire reaching up into the blue done of the sky, rises that mighty monument, the Pai Ta, or White Dagoba This massive pagoda, which crowns the "Hill of Gold," is among the most conspicuous as well as the most interesting of Peking's famous landmarks, and the whole gorgeous scene, as reflected again in the quiet waters of the lake, forms a never-to-be-forgotten picture-one so impressive that for centuries this landscape has been regarded by the Chinese as one of the "eight famous sights" of Peking. The White Dagoba, standing on the ground of still older structures, was erected in A.D. 1652, in honor of the Tibetan pontiff who came to Peking to be confirmed in the title of Dalai Lama. But centuries before, in the days of the Liaos, a famous temple also crowned the beautiful hilltop. This huge monument is unlike most of the Chinese structures in shape, having a large, round, unomamented base, surmounted by a tall slender spire which ends gracefully in a gilded ball. This form of tower, so common throughout Mongolia and Tibet, symbolizes by its five sections."base, body, spire, ornament, and gilded ball- the five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and ether." For a further description of the Pei Hai, see paqe 62.
