This city of Hsiangyang was one of the last strongholds of the Chinese against the Manchu invasion from the north, and when it was taken and sacked after a year's siege it dell into a decay from which it has never recovered, though it is still the official head-guarrers of a large area.
On the opposite side of the river is the commercial city' of Fencheng, which is a really important centre, with telephone, aerated water, and all the modern discomforts imported by some enterprising Chinese.
The river is penned up here to a third of its natural width, and as a.result the whole of the water front has had to be protected by rock bunding, which runs up stream for some three miles, and is a fine tribute to the enterprise of the engineers' who built it, and the government - who contributed. the necessary funds,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.