LAND OF KHAN
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Year Published: 1934
Format: 16mm
Description: This 1934 black-and-white film takes the viewer to "Peiping — Land of Khan." (At the time, China’s capital, Beijing, was known as Beiping — but written as "Peiping." It has also been known as Peking.) An opening expository intertitle informs the viewer at mark 00:10: "Peiping means ‘Peace in the North.’ The modern city, once a perpetual battlefield, is now a quiet sightseeing mecca for world travelers and a favorite ‘port of call’" for United States sailors. Innumerable little stores line the narrow streets of the city, another title card tells us at mark 01:07, as we then see various scenes around the city as the narrator explains that the city is divided into two sections: the Chinese City (Outer City) and the Tartar City (Inner City), surrounded by a "great wall built long ago to resist the attacks of barbarian hordes." Within the Tartar City is the Forbidden City, we are told at mark 01:48, as scenes of daily life appear on the screen. "The Chinese of Beiping are today hospitable and friendly. Their ancient animosity toward Westerners has disappeared," the viewer is assured. Sailors visiting the city, the narrator continues at mark 02:38, will have the opportunity to purchase a number of souvenirs, including jade, or visiting a gambling house on the outskirts of town for a game of fantan (a game of chance similar to roulette). Scenes filmed around the city continue, and at mark 04:00 a title card explains that "Emperors raised temples and pagodas to their gods" as many such structures are shown, including the Jade Fountain Pagoda and the Temple of Heaven, as American sailors and the Chinese are shown in a variety ofantanf scenes sans narration. Mark 06:10 takes the viewer to the Qing tombs, an imperial mausoleum complex, as sailors are shown climbing upon ancient structures, and a title card at mark 06:54 tells of the "Manchu Versailles" — built by the Emperor Kang Hsi. (The Kangxi Emperor was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty who ruled from 1661-1722.) Scenes of his summer palace fill the screen as the narrator details its construction.
Complete Record:
Transcription
for hundreds of centuries Bing formerly called peing has been a Terminus for the Caravans which carried merchandise to and from Mongolia since the time of the great Gan Bing has been one of the chief cities of northern China modern vaping is divided into two sections the Chinese City and the tartar city which is surrounded by A Great Wall built long ago to resist the attack of Barbarian horde seeking to invade the ancient Capital within the tartter city and also surrounded by walls is the Forbidden City Once the Royal residents of the Manu dynast the Chinese of vaping are today hospitable and friendly their ancient animosity to westerners has disappeared the American Blue Jacket visiting the city has much to see shops are filled with Jade and other precious stones on every corner is a native letter writer anxious to perform the service of social secretary for a moderate fee and on the outskirts of the city we find the gambling house where China's great game of Fantan is played for high stakes n Bing is truly the city of pagodas and temples most famous perhaps is the Jade Fountain Pagoda in the Western Hills the Temple of Heaven another magnificent edifice where with much pump and ceremony the Emperors went to worship the la many of these buildings suffer from lack of care but enough is left to impress the visitor with the glory that was once B pink some distance outside the city walls are the Ming TBS the burial place of the old royal families approached through an Avenue lined with images of mandarins camels Lions horses and elephants the high spot of a visit to Bing is a trip to the beautiful Summer Palace built by the emperor Kang SE in the extensive Palace grounds the emperor commanded that a lake large enough to be called an ocean be constructed for him armies of kulies worked for years until at last it was completed he then commanded that a marble ship be built though they tried their Oriental best not all the experts China could make it float it became a tea garden for the emperor and from its decks the son of Heaven viewed his man-made ocean the Ancient Man chws are gone and the Summer Palace once sacred to all save those of Royal Blood is open to the public la n
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