It was
early
June and
Peking
wore the
green
lace of
spring,its
thousands
of
willows
and
imperial
cypresses
making
the
Forbidden
City a
place of
wonder
and
enchantment,
and in
many
cool
gardens
it was
impossible
to
believe
in the
China of
breaking
toil,
starvation,
revolution
, and
foreign
invasion
that lay
beyond
the
glittering
roofs of
the
palaces.
Here
well-fed
foreigners
could
live in
their
own
little
never-never
land of
whisky-and-soda,
Polo,
tennis,
and
gossip,
happily
quite
unaware
of the
pulse of
Humanity
outside
the
great
city's
silent,
insulating
walls as
indeed
many
did.
