24, note.) The common Chinese li = 360 pu, or 180
chang, or 1800 ch'i (feet); 1 li = 1894 English feet or 575 metres; at
least according to the old Venice measures quoted in Yule's Marco Polo,
II., one pace = 5 feet. Besides the common li, the Chinese have another
li, used for measuring fields, which has only 240 pu or 1200 ch'i.
This is the li spoken of in the Ch'ue keng lu. (Ibid. 13, note.) - H.
C.]
NOTE 7. - ["Near the southern face of the wall are barracks for the Life
Guards." (Ch'ue keng lu, translated by Bretschneider, 25.) - H. C.]
NOTE 8. - This description of palace (see opposite cut), an elevated
basement of masonry with a superstructure of timber (in general carved and
gilded), is still found in Burma, Siam, and Java, as well as in China. If
we had any trace of the palaces of the ancient Asokas and Vikramadityas of
India, we should probably find that they were of the same character. It
seems to be one of those things that belonged to some ancient Panasiatic
fashion, as the palaces of Nineveh were of a somewhat similar construction.
In the Audience Halls of the Moguls at Delhi and Agra we can trace the
ancient form, though the superstructure has there become an arcade of
marble instead of a pavilion on timber columns.
[Illustration: Palace at Khan-baligh. (From the Livre des Merveilles.)]
["The Ta-ming tien (Hall of great brightness) is without doubt what
Marco Polo calls 'the Lord's Great Palace.'... He states, that it 'hath no
upper story'; and indeed, the palace buildings which the Chinese call
tien are always of one story.
