Cixi’s funeral. Brooke Astor, American philanthropist, was a child in Beijing and watched the procession with her family from the city wall: ‘All day it passed beneath us through the gate. There were Buddhit and Taoist priests in white robes and Buddhist lamas in yellow with red sashes. There were endless bands of eunuchs dressed in white, who tossed paper money in the air (for the Empress’s use on her way to heaven)…There were twenty-four white camels, with yellow brocade tents on their backs…and a whole company of white ponies…there were papier-mache replicas of all the Empress’s palaces …All this passed accompanied by the cries of the mourners, who tore their hair and beat their chests to the clashing of cymbals.’ The colossal palanquin was covered with yellow brocade embroidered with phoenixes. When it passed by, all Westerners rose and took off their hats.