ABSTRACT
IT may be imagined with what interest I went to the first audience which the Empress-Dowager gave to the ladies of the Corps Diplomatique after my arrival in Peking. We were invited to the Winter Palace which lies in the heart of the Forbidden City. As I was rapidly carried in an official sedan chair past so many now historic spots, my impression was one of numberless great courtyards succeeding each other and connected by Chinese gateways decorated with dragons and other devices. These courts were shaded by magnificent cedar trees and flanked by huge red painted, one-storied buildings, roofed with imperial yellow tiles, probably the dwellings of various members of the court. A canal spanned at intervals by marble bridges threaded its way from one court to another.
