From the historian's notes

Hangzhou, 1170

China · East Asia · September 1170 (8th lunar month — bore-viewing days) · autumn

What it was high

one of the largest and richest cities on Earth — several hundred thousand people at least, packed between West Lake and the Qiantang riverold prefectural city, made the Southern Song 'temporary' capital in 1138 after the north was lost

That year

• the Qiantang tidal bore viewing — the 18th day of the 8th month draws the whole city to the riverbank; boatmen and swimmers ride the wave with banners for prizes 8th lunar month, annually highcitywide festival
• paper money (huizi) has been official for only a decade (issued from 1160) — notes and coin circulate side by side, with exchange shops between them 1160s onward higheveryday commerce

Who held it high

Southern Song dynastyEmperor Xiaozongpeace with the Jurchen Jin was renegotiated in 1165 — humiliating, stable, prosperous; the north including the old capital Kaifeng remains lost, and every family of standing has a refugee grandparent. This year the court sends Fan Chengda north on embassy to the Jin — his travel diary of 1170 survives

Its name high

Lin'an (臨安, the official capital name); also called Xingzai, 'the temporary residence' — a fiction of impermanence the city has worn for thirty yearsWritten in Chinese characters

The date, there medium

Qiandao 6era name plus year, lunar monthsNight watches (geng) drummed and rung from towers divide the dark; incense sticks and graduated candles time private matters; no public mechanical clock — Su Song's great clock tower belonged to Kaifeng and the lost north, which makes time itself a refugee here.

Money low

copper cash plus huizi paper notescash coin (wen); notes denominated in stringsa bowl of noodles: some tens of cash — order of magnitude only

Weather medium

September: warm and damp, around 25 C days; osmanthus in bloom across the lake hills; the tail of typhoon season can still throw a stormthe bore itself is the documented extreme — a tidal wall that has drowned spectators in various years; respect it as locals do, from the right stretches of bank

Things

Objectsprinted books — cheap, everywhere, the great difference from her Tang stop; huizi paper notes and strings of copper cash; Longquan celadon; oil-paper umbrellas; incense sticks burned as timersFoodrice in every form; freshwater crab (an autumn glory); osmanthus-scented cakes and wine; tea — powdered and whisked, taken seriously, competed over; noodle shops and cooked-food stalls at all hoursClothsilk gauze (the local export of exports); ramie for summer wear; cotton still a southern novelty rather than the stapleGetting aboutcanal boats and ferries; sedan chairs; donkeys; horses are scarce and official — the cavalry country is lost with the northIn the airosmanthus over the lake; frying oil and star anise in the market lanes; incense; canal water

What she'd hear

The city speaks a Wu-inflected urban koine salted with the northern speech the refugee court brought; officials write in classical Chinese. She passes without effort visually, and any personal accent is explained by 'family from the north' — the commonest story in town.

Where she could stand

• the Qiantang embankment on bore day — crowds banked deep, vendors working the wait, then a white wall of water heard before it is seen
• the Imperial Way (Yujie) — the spine street from palace toward the lake: pharmacies, silk shops, teahouses, government notices
• a night market under lanterns — the Song abolished the old curfew world — food stalls and shopping run into the night
• West Lake by hired boat — pleasure boats, causeways, temple hills; Leifeng Pagoda (built 975) on its promontory
• a huizi exchange counter — paper-for-coin exchange shop with strings of cash and printed notes

Researched for this card · confidence high