Ba Sing Se
Ba Sing Se
永固城 | |
|---|---|
Intendancy and sui generis royal city | |
| Royal City of Ba Sing Se | |
     From top, left to right: Walls of Ba Sing Se, Legation Quarter, Palace of Ba Sing Se and its Meridian Gate, Ba Sing Se University, Agricultural Zone | |
| Etymology: "Ever-Invincible City" | |
| Country |  Earth Kingdom |
| Superintendency | South Jidai |
| Founded by | Yuan Wong (legendary) |
| Government | |
| • Type | Royal intendancy |
| • Earth King | Ainin |
| • Superintendent of South Jidai | Prince Shu of Chungmen |
| • Intendant | Count Si-dai of Huangshi |
| • Chief Magistrate | Min San-wai |
| Area | |
| • Total | 81,186 blocks |
| Elevation | 15 m (49 ft) |
| Abbreviation | 永 |
Ba Sing Se (Terran: 永固城) is the capital and largest city of the Earth Kingdom. Located in the southeastern corner of the Earth Kingdom, the city is a diverse metropolis with residents hailing from around both the Earth Kingdom and the world and an extensive network of public infrastructure, making it one of the largest and most developed cities in the world. As the economic, cultural and administrative heart of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se is the seat to virtually all of the nation's major businesses, government bodies and educational institutions, playing an outsized role in world affairs. Ba Sing Se is administered as a royal intendancy and, as part of the Superintendency of South Jidai, is incorporated within the royal domain of the Earth King.
Situated on the Central Sea, Ba Sing Se is a major trading port and boasts extensive harbour facilities that handle trade and migration from throughout the Earth Kingdom and the world at large. The city is best known for its towering defensive wall, which fully envelops its built-up area and encloses an extensively terraformed oasis of lush vegetation within an otherwise arid desert. As one of the oldest earthbender settlements in the world, Ba Sing Se is said to have been established by Yuan Wong, the mythical founder of the Earth Kingdom. In recent years, it has expanded its influence over vast hinterlands and shifted from a regional centre to a world city as a result of the Unification of the Earth Kingdom.
As the capital of the strictly hierarchical Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se is a strongly stratified city with its social exclusions reflected in the physical landscape: the city is divided into rigid zones (or rings) of land use, including both class-segregated residential sectors and use-based areas, such as industrial and agricultural sectors. The city is home to such notable landmarks as the Palace of Ba Sing Se, the seat of the Earth Kingdom's government; Ba Sing Se University, the world's first institution of higher learning; Grand Central Station, the world's first and largest train station; and the Ba Sing Se Metro, an extensive, largely underground rapid transit system.
Etymology
The name Ba Sing Se derives from the Terran characters 永 (perpetual, long-lasting), 固 (strong, firm) and 城 (city), roughly translating to "ever-invincible city". The name is said to have been granted to the city by its legendary founder Yuan Wong, who wrote in the Doctrines of the Earth Kingdom that a stable royal capital was a prerequisite to pacify the regions and bring order to the realm. Scholars believe that the name directly refers to the city's walls, which prior to the discovery of gunpowder were thought impervious to any external invader.
History
Early history
According to recorded oral histories and classic works like the Doctrines of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se was established by Yuan Wong, the mythical first king of the Earth Kingdom, on a highly symbolic site that was said to be both the location of the Badgermole's ascension to the cosmic expanse (as described in the Classic of Origins) and the final resting place of Da Kang, the first earthbender and the tamer of the great flood (as described in the Classic of Nations). Yuan Wong is said to have declared that a strong, fortified city was necessary for the construction of a strong, fortified nation, and therefore ordered the construction of great ramparts that are now the city wall. According to legend, Yuan Wong built his palace in the centre of Ba Sing Se and supervised the construction of great farms to ensure that his new capital would never starve under siege and, upon his death, was buried within the palace grounds.
Although the historical record is sparse about the founding of the city, it is known from archaeological evidence and historical records that Ba Sing Se has been continuously inhabited for centuries and that the city's iconic walls were erected via earthbending early on in its history. There is also archaeological evidence that the vast cave network underneath Ba Sing Se once teemed with human activity and may even have been hosted housing, perhaps on account of the shelter it provided from the scorching desert sun.
Ba Sing Se has been the capital and primate city of the Earth Kingdom for centuries, with the present-day Palace of Ba Sing Se (not to be confused with Yuan Wong's original palace, which is lost to history) and the Temple of Solid Earth erected at least 300 years before present. Some buildings, such as the Grand Harbour complex, are thought to be significantly older and may date from close to the founding of the city. Ba Sing Se has always been closely associated with the Earth King, remaining loyal to the Crown even as distant peripheral regions that were once within the Earth Kingdom's sphere of influence gradually severed their ties and assumed independence. During its pre-modern era, Ba Sing Se had a much smaller footprint than today, with a much lower density of housing in the Lower Ring and several areas of the Middle Ring such as the Industrial Park being entirely undeveloped.
Recent events
The rapid growth of Ba Sing Se began in earnest with the Unification of the Earth Kingdom, when Earth King Ainin embarked on a military campaign to subjugate the culturally Terran outlying regions that had drifted out of the Earth Kingdom's sphere of influence over the past centuries. Although the war was waged almost entirely on the plains in the central Earth Kingdom, the Acacian League managed to sneak a fire ship containing a large number of explosives to Ba Sing Se's southern harbour and detonate it at its berth, destroying the port, killing hundreds in the Lower Ring and causing unprecedented damage to the city wall. After this incident, the Earth Army resolved to crush the Acacian League in a decisive confrontation and won the pivotal Battle of the Northern Road, heralding the end of the war and the unification of the land under the Earth King.
After the successful conclusion of the campaign, Ba Sing Se found itself at the apex of a vast empire that spans a continent bordering three seas. With this sudden dramatic expansion of the Earth Kingdom, vast riches from the hinterlands and large numbers of migrants from elsewhere in the realm poured into the city, resulting in its rapid expansion. New resources gained through expansion financed major improvements to the Middle Ring, including the construction of Ba Sing Se University, the development of the manufactories of the Industrial Park, and the addition of new middle-class housing. Meanwhile, growing influxes of migrant workers significantly strained the housing supply in the Lower Ring, resulting in frantic building of new tenements that have given the sector the dense housing and narrow roads for which it is known today.
With the rapid advance of technology in recent decades, new transportation facilities have cropped up around the city to take advantage of these new modes. Notably, the Ba Sing Se Airship Dock was built to handle airship traffic and the Grand Central Station came into existence to serve new railway technology. With the size of the city growing and traffic worsening on the surface roads, a metro system was also constructed beneath the Middle Ring to enable more efficient movement.
Geography
Districts
Palace Precinct (Upper Ring)
The Palace Precinct (Terran: 宫区), commonly known as the Upper Ring (Terran: 上环), is the elite sector of the city reserved for the Earth King, the most important nobles and the highest functions of state. Centered on the Palace of Ba Sing Se, the seat of the Earth Kingdom government, the Palace Precinct includes the adjoining buildings to the palace. These buildings include:
- The Meridian Gate (中门), the monumental eastern entrance to the palace grounds within which are located a variety of storage facilities, military installations, and residences for servants and guards;
- The Temple of Solid Earth (永土宫), a Celestialist temple complex located in the southeastern corner of the Upper Ring which hosts the original copies of the three sacred texts: the Classic of Origins, the Classic of Nations and the Doctrines of the Earth Kingdom;
- The Royal Commission, officially known as His Majesty's Commission of Justice (皇家司法会), the high court of the Earth Kingdom that sits at the apex of the state judiciary and which hears important civil cases, criminal trials of notable individuals and appeals from summary convictions by magistrates;
- The Royal Guesthouse (皇家宾馆), the state guest house for visiting dignitaries and other guests of the Earth King.
City Area (Middle Ring)
The City Area (Terran: 市区), commonly known as the Middle Ring (Terran: 中环), is the economic core of Ba Sing Se and includes a diverse range of residential, commercial, industrial and institutional uses. The Middle Ring covers most of Ba Sing Se's land area and is home to most middle-class residents and nobles.
| Name | Image | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Legation Quarter 使馆区 |
|
Home to the embassies and legations that represent foreign nations in the Earth Kingdom, the Legation Quarter is a cosmopolitan neighbourhood centered on the monumental Pingtai Boulevard. Made up of luxurious courtyard homes, the neighbourhood has spilled over into the nearby Market Avenue and Yaxia areas due to the high demand for new diplomatic missions. |
| Royal Market 皇家市场 | 
|
Located to the north of the Grand Harbour, the Royal Market extends from Pingtai Boulevard to the north city wall and comprises one of the largest open-air markets in the world. Merchants from around the world sell both local and imported goods, including food, clothes and manufactured goods. The Royal Market is particularly known for its street food hawkers and textile sellers. |
| Market Avenue 市场大街 | TBD | Located due east of the Royal Market, Market Avenue is a neighbourhood built around the thoroughfare of the same name. The street is lined with luxury courtyard homes occupied by upper class residents and some foreign diplomats, along with the homes and practices of upper middle-class professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, bankers and senior civil servants. |
| Industrial Park 工业区 | 
|
The expansive Industrial Park, which stretches from the Gate of Inner Perfection to the palace ring road, and outward for several blocks in both the east and west directions, is an industrial area filled with manufactories, refineries and other factories. The area is known for its tall smokestacks and the lingering smell of soot. |
| Yanchiangshan 岩浆山 (Lava Hill) |
TBD | Located on the plateau separating the Industrial Park from Market Avenue, Yanchiangshan is an upper middle class area made up of modest courtyard villas and apartment buildings. The area is primarily residential, but there are also some shops and some home-based professional services. |
| Muchang 牧场 (Pastures) |
|
Bounded by the Agricultural Zone wall, the northern city wall, the Industrial Park and the palace ring road, Muchang is a middle class residential area comprised of apartment buildings. Neighbourhood residents are largely civil servants and Industrial Park plant managers. |
| Yaxia 崖下 (Below the Cliff) |
TBD | Yaxia is a residential area located between Pingtai Boulevard and the Zoological Garden heights. Situated at the foot of the cliff, the extremely affluent neighbourhood is made up of courtyard villas. |
| Zoological Garden 动物园 | 
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The Zoological Garden is a public park and the menagerie of the Earth King, comprising a number of displays featuring animals from across the world and the Nether dimension. |
| Ba Sing Se University 永固城皇家大学 |
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Ba Sing Se University is the oldest university in the world and the Earth Kingdom's premier institution of learning. Built in a courtyard style, the university complex is made up of five buildings surrounding a central quadrangle. |
Lower Ring
The Lower Ring (Terran: 下环) is a sector of Ba Sing Se reserved for commoners of modest means, notably including the city's lower classes, migrant workers, beggars and the infirm. Separated from the rest of the city by the Sanitary Canal, an open-air aqueduct, the Lower Ring is notable for its unplanned nature, poor quality infrastructure and perennial overcrowding. Despite its small size, the Lower Ring is home to an overwhelming majority of the city's residents.
| Name | Image | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Chiangbian 墙边 (Besides the Wall) |
|
Made up of the westernmost blocks of the Lower Ring, Chiangbian is a residential neighbourhood notable for having many homes built directly against the city wall. The neighbourhood is mostly populated by shopkeepers, professional tradesmen and some lower-income workers who commute to other city sectors for work, including office clerks and civil servants. It includes all areas in the Lower Ring located west of the western public well. |
| Chungchi 中西 (Centre West) |
|
Located towards the western end of the Lower Ring, Chungchi includes all buildings located between the western public well and Nangong Avenue that do not directly abut the latter. Chungchi is a dense and overcrowded neighbourhood comprised of working poor residents, and it is popular with migrant workers from other parts of the Earth Kingdom. |
| Nangong Dajie 南港大街 (South Harbour High Street) |
TBD | Nangong Dajie comprises all the homes and businesses that directly abut Nangong Avenue, the large thoroughfare that bisects the Lower Ring and leads from the Middle Ring to the Southern Harbour. The neighbourhood includes a large number of shops, restaurants, lower-middle class dwellings and the central police station. |
| Chiangwai 墙外 (Outside the Wall) |
|
Chiangwai is the only neighbourhood of Ba Sing Se located outside the city wall and comprises a number of dwellings built around the city's secondary port outside the Gate of Outward Perfection. Chiangwai includes the Southern Harbour of Ba Sing Se, which handles internal commoner migration to and from the city as well as less desirable cargoes, including scrap metal, livestock and manure. Most residents are fishermen and dockworkers. |
| Chungho 厂后 (Behind the Armoury) |
TBD | |
| Yunhebian 运河边 (Besides the Canal) |
TBD | |
| Yunheyuan 运河原 (Fount of the Canal) |
TBD | |
| Chungdung 中东 (Centre East) |
TBD | |
| Dunko 洞口 (Cave Opening) |
TBD | |
| Feiwutai 废物堆 (Garbage Heap) |
TBD |
Agricultural Zone
The Agricultural Zone (Terran: 农业区) is a sector of Ba Sing Se dedicated to agricultural activity. Covering the entire area within the city walls east of the Meridian Gate and north of the Sanitary Canal, the Agricultural Zone is a vast area of flat land largely covered in croplands and pastures. Nearly every type of food typically consumed in the Earth Kingdom is grown or produced in sizable quantities in the Agricultural Zone, with a majority of the produced goods sold directly to residents of the city. Animals raised in the Agricultural Zone include pigs, cattle, rabbits and mooshrooms, which are all raised for meat except the latter, which is instead raised for mushroom production. Food crops grown in the Agricultural Zone include wheat, potato, carrot, beetroot, melon, pumpkin, cocoa, sweet berries and sugar cane. Non-food crops grown include cactus and bamboo.
There are also several buildings within the Agricultural Zone that support agricultural activities:
- The Earth Kingdom Food Reserve is a complex of granaries that stores a strategic reserve of agricultural goods, including both produce and preserved meats, for distribution to the populace in the event of a national emergency or a major disruption to the food supply.
- The Earth Kingdom Seed Vault is a depository of seeds, shoots and saplings for a large variety of food and non-food crops that is stored for distribution to farmers in the Earth Kingdom in the event of a crop failure or other calamity that causes a shortage of planting materials.
- The Honourable Guild of Meatpackers is a facility operated by the guild of the same name that processes freshly slaughtered meat from the Agricultural Zone and prepares the meat for sale through packaging, transportation and, if necessary, curing.
Architecture
As an ancient metropolis with a diverse stock of homes and other buildings, many styles of architecture are associated with Ba Sing Se. Some of the earliest buildings in the city, particularly the Grand Harbour complex, are built in the Earth Kingdom vernacular style (also known as Terra style), which favours simple geometric forms, plain and symmetrical patterns, and local materials such as sandstone. Vernacular style buildings vary in size and complexity, ranging from highly complex structures such as the Grand Harbour to simple and crude buildings such as the homes of the Lower Ring. Vernacular style is favoured by many due to the abundance of sandstone in the Earth Kingdom and the ease with which earthbenders can manipulate the material, requiring little specialized masonry or structural support. This style is particularly prevalent in the Lower Ring and the Agricultural Zone, where nearly all buildings are constructed in this architecture due to its low cost and modest manpower requirements.
However, the style of construction most strongly associated with Ba Sing Se is the so-called Palace style, an ornate architectural preference inspired by the Palace of Ba Sing Se which favours the use of red terracotta, diorite pillars and tiled granite roofs. The majority of buildings in the Middle Ring are built in the Palace style, with the style particularly prominent in the Legation Quarter, Market Avenue and Yaxia neighbourhoods. The style is also associated with government buildings, with state institutions such as the royal palace, the Temple of Solid Earth and the Royal Commission built in this architecture. The architectural style is often considered a status symbol, both due to its association with royalty and because it relies on materials such as terracotta which are not native to the Earth Kingdom and must therefore be imported from overseas at great cost.
Climate and environment
Ba Sing Se is located within an arid desert climate with little native vegetation other than cacti and small bushes. Some grasses are also known to grow along the city's shoreline. Native wildlife consists only of a number of rabbits adapted to the desert heat. The weather is extremely hot year-round and it is not known to rain in Ba Sing Se.
However, thanks to extensive irrigation works and aqueducts built by humans, Ba Sing Se is a man-made oasis within the surrounding desert and known for its verdant greenscapes, including parks, gardens and tree-lines boulevards. This vegetation is non-native to the local ecosystem and imported from both the grasslands of the Earth Kingdom and exotic faraway lands. As a result of this landscaping, Ba Sing Se is noticeably cooler than the surrounding regions and sees occasional cloud cover.
Demographics
Estimated bending demographics of Ba Sing Se
Like most of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se's population is predominantly composed of Terran people who speak the Terran language. Recent estimates indicate that somewhere between 89 and 93 percent of Ba Sing Se residents are Terran. Of the remainder, the largest minority group at three percent are Andorrans, on account of their free movement through the Earth Kingdom as fellow subjects of the Earth King. Other groups with a notable presence in Ba Sing Se include diasporas from the Air Nation, the Free Territory, Fryslân and the Water Tribe, many of whom are involved in the vast international trade coordinated from Ba Sing Se. With high rates of internal migration from the Earth Kingdom countryside, it is thought that less than half of Ba Sing Se residents were originally born in the city, and even less can trace their lineage to the city for more than three generations.
Surveys indicate that approximately 80 percent of Ba Sing Se residents are nonbenders, with 12 percent possessing some type of earthbending ability. Of the earthbenders, it is thought that less than 10 percent demonstrate any sort of proficiency in metalbending, the favoured bending style of the Earth Kingdom. Those who master metalbending often go on to assume prestigious and well-paying jobs in industry and the armed forces. While earthbending knowledge unlocks some economic opportunities, it is not seen as a status marker in Ba Sing Se, with most elites possessing little to no bending proficiency. Small populations of airbenders, waterbenders and firebenders also exist in Ba Sing Se: notably, waterbenders who demonstrate healing abilities are frequently employed at local hospitals as healers and firebenders are sometimes known to use their abilities to power heavy industry machinery or to assist with mining and demolitions.
The most prevalent religion in Ba Sing Se is Celestialism, though the total number of adherents is unknown since its non-theistic nature and lack of public rites do not lend themselves to easy assessment of belief in its doctrines. The heart of Celestialist spiritual life in Ba Sing Se is the Temple of Solid Earth, where the religion's trio of holy books are stored and civic ceremonies, such as marriages and funerals of notable individuals, are conducted. Other religions with some presence in Ba Sing Se, particularly amongst expatriate non-citizens, include the Ordering and Empyreanism, the latter of which maintains a small chapel in the Royal Market precinct. Adherence to foreign religions is low in Ba Sing Se, since Earth Kingdom law makes proselytization a criminal offence.
Economy
Ba Sing Se is the economic capital of the Earth Kingdom and occupies outsized importance within the country in terms of agricultural output, industrial production and gross domestic product. The city is heavily industrialized and its industry is concentrated in the Industrial Park neighbourhood, which holds almost all the refineries and heavy industry facilities in the Earth Kingdom. A significant portion of the Earth Kingdom's light industry is also found in this sector, but some manufacturing is instead done through a putting-out system in the Lower Ring while other manufactories are not in the city at all, but rather dispersed in the rest of the country. Goods manufactured in Ba Sing Se are in turn exported and sold widely, both domestically and in other port cities. The city is particularly known for the high quality of its metal implements, which use metalbender-assisted industrial production to improve their durability and precision. A significant portion of the city's workforce, particularly amongst Lower Ring residents, work in light and heavy industry.
There is also a significant primary sector in Ba Sing Se, with a large number of foodstuffs and other agricultural goods produced in the Agricultural Zone of the city. There is a long history of farming within city limits, with the Agricultural Zone established centuries ago to ensure that the city can withstand a protracted siege without acute food shortages. Unlike industrial goods, agricultural goods produced in Ba Sing Se are typically not exported abroad, but the majority is rather consumed by the city itself. The city is known for its high diversity of agricultural goods, with virtually every common type of meat, grain and vegetable produced in the Agricultural Zone in significant quantities. Despite this prodigious agricultural capacity, Ba Sing Se is not self-sufficient and imports significant quantities of grain and fresh produce from other parts of the Earth Kingdom.
Owing to its population size and affluence, Ba Sing Se is also home to a large tertiary sector that provides a wide range of services and amenities to its residents. Nearly every kind of service available in the Earth Kingdom can be found in Ba Sing Se, ranging from professional industries such as legal aid, medicine and financial services to hospitality industries such as lodgings and restaurants. As the financial centre of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se is home to nearly every corporate headquarters and financial institution in the Earth Kingdom. The Royal Guild, the largest bank in the Earth Kingdom, has its seat in Ba Sing Se's Middle Ring. Many Earth Kingdom logistical and transportation industries are also based in Ba Sing Se, including airship lines, shipping companies, courier services and the Royal Mounted Post, the state-operated postal service.
Due to the weak government presence in the Lower Ring, there is also a thriving underground economy in Ba Sing Se. Large numbers of smugglers import and sell untaxed and counterfeit goods to residents or provide unlicensed professional services, such as rudimentary health care and unregulated lending. Other major underground industries present in Ba Sing Se include arms trafficking, racketeering and prostitution.
Education and culture
Education
There is no public schooling of any kind in Ba Sing Se. Education is viewed as a strictly private familial responsibility and well-to-do parents typically hire private tutors for the home instruction of their children. While some middle-class families are known to pool together resources to hire a group tutor, thereby creating a makeshift private school, such efforts are not sanctioned or financially supported by the state. Youth who cannot afford to receive tutoring typically begin working at a young age or take on an apprenticeship to become a tradesman. Vocational education is also unsupported by the state and instead the responsibility of individual guilds, employers and companies.
Ba Sing Se is home to the Royal University at Ba Sing Se, the world's first dedicated university and the premier institution of higher learning in the Earth Kingdom. The university offers instruction in diverse arts and sciences, including botany, geology, chemistry, law and anthropology, from its Middle Ring campus in central Ba Sing Se. Enrolment at the university is open to all Earth Kingdom subjects who can pay the tuition, and attendance is considered an unofficial requirement for any position in the civil service. The university also welcomes foreign exchange students from partner institutions, such as the Air Nation's Institute for Empyrean Studies.
Culture
Due to its outsized role within the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se is a cultural powerhouse and home to the vast majority of the country's artists, writers and entertainers. Many notable novelists, critics and other writers are affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Ba Sing Se University, publishing a diverse array of writings in a number of newspapers and magazines published in the city. Notable publications from Ba Sing Se include the Palace Report, the official state newspaper; the Earth Kingdom Independent News, an independent newspaper widely read by the intelligentsia; the Proceedings of the Royal University, a scientific journal; and the Western Literature Review, a literary magazine.
Being home to the trendsetting elites of the Earth Kingdom and connected to the world through its vast transportation networks, Ba Sing Se is also on the forefront of the latest fashions. Many trends and fashions that begin in Ba Sing Se eventually spread to both the rest of the Earth Kingdom and to other cities in the Central Sea basin. Notable cultural institutions in Ba Sing Se include Ba Sing Se University, whose library stores every literary work ever published in the Earth Kingdom and numerous tomes from foreign nations; the Royal Market, where many live song and dance performances occur; and the Royal Theatre, a venue for plays, operas and music recitals.
Government and politics
As a part of the royal domain, Ba Sing Se is nominally the personal possession of the Earth King. In practice, the Earth King's personal holdings in the southern Earth Kingdom, including Ba Sing Se, are organized as the Superintendency of South Jidai, a province administered by a royal superintendent on the King's behalf. The Lord High Chamberlain, Prince Shu of Chungmen, is the Superintendent of South Jidai.
Owing to the complexity of administering such a large province, South Jidai is further divided into a number of second-order districts named intendancies, each governed by a royal intendant under the supervision of the Superintendent of South Jidai. The intendant of Ba Sing Se, who performs the functions associated in other nations with a city mayor, is Count Si-dai of Huangshi.
Because security matters are a direct national responsibility, they are outside the purview of the superintendent and instead the charge of an official appointed by the Chancellor of the Earth Kingdom named the chief magistrate. The chief magistrate is the head of the police, the administrator of the local justice system, and the chief prosecutor at the Royal Commission. The current chief magistrate is Advocate Min San-wai.
Public services
Health care
Health care in Ba Sing Se is provided in a wide variety of ways, with access to care and the quality of treatment varying significantly by class and neighbourhood. A large number of trained doctors operate in the city and maintain private practices from their homes in the Middle Ring. These doctors attend to most of the city's middle and upper class residents and typically provide house calls to their patients. In the Lower Ring, the quality of health care is poor and access to trained doctors and provisioned hospitals is heavily restricted. In those neighbourhoods, most medical care is provided by an unregulated industry of healers and shamans of dubious qualification.
A modern hospital with extensive treatment facilities and access to exotic medicines is located on the campus of Ba Sing Se University and operated by its Department of Chemistry and Medicine. This hospital is the teaching hospital of Ba Sing Se University and offers treatment to the Earth Kingdom's political elites, seriously injured patients who cannot be treated at doctors' private practices, and those with the means to pay for world-class care.
Security and defence
Public security in Ba Sing Se is the responsibility of the Uniformed Magistracy, an agency under the command of the chief magistrate of South Jidai. Uniformed magistrates patrol all neighbourhoods of the city to prevent crime and guard the various ingress points in the city walls to prevent unauthorized access. Unlike typical police, uniformed magistrates in the Earth Kingdom have the power to summarily convict suspects of criminal offences after a brief, ad hoc trial at the police station, though their decisions are subject to discretionary review by the Royal Commission. Most uniformed magistrates are typically armed only with batons, but a special division of tactical officers is known to operate with firearms, swords and other weapons. The Uniformed Magistracy also includes the Reserve Yeomanry, a reserve cavalry unit that serves as the crowd control and riot suppression wing of the police force in peacetime. The headquarters of the Uniformed Magistracy is located on Nangong Avenue in the Lower Ring.
Other security forces with specialized jurisdictions in Ba Sing Se include the army provosts, who guard Earth Army installations; the naval corpsmen, who guard Earth Navy installations; the Special Revenue Magistrates, a division of the Secretariat of Accounts which enforces tax laws and inspects shipping to ensure compliance with customs regulations; and the royal guard, who defend the Earth King's palace. Additionally, His Majesty's Secret Service, the feared secret police of the Earth Kingdom, is known to operate within the city and surveil people thought to pose a political risk to the realm's security.
Ba Sing Se is also home to a large number of active and reserve military units. The Royal Life Guard Regiment, comprising two battalions of infantry and one battalion of heavy cavalry, is the main Earth Army unit responsible for the defence of the city. Reserve army units in the city, which are in varying degrees of readiness, include the Royal 2nd Infantry Regiment (Light) and elements of the Defence Service (The Royal 3rd Infantry) Regiment (Reserve). Notably, the army reserve mans two coastal artillery guns that overlook the southern harbour of the city and protect the Lower Ring from attack. Due to the proximity to the Home Fleet anchorage at Fort Kyoshi, the Earth Navy presence in the city itself is limited to two small torpedo boats, ENS Senlin and ENS Si Wong, which provide patrol and picket duties at the city's two harbours.
Transportation
Roads
Ba Sing Se has an extensive network of city streets, which range from large thoroughfares suitable for several lanes of carriage and pedestrian traffic to narrow alleyways which can only be negotiated on foot. Popular modes of transportation on Ba Sing Se's roads include horse-drawn carriages, rickshaws, palanquins and walking; civilian motorized vehicles are prohibited in the Earth Kingdom. The quality of the road network varies significantly by neighbourhood, with tree-lined boulevards and landscaped stone brick avenues to be found in the Upper and Middle Rings but only dusty, winding streets of rough cobblestones to be found in the Lower Ring. Road network access is subject to some restrictions: police checkpoints are situated at the city gates and on the only road bridge between the Middle and Lower Rings to prevent unauthorized people from entering certain sectors of the city.
Three gates for road traffic are found in the city walls, including the Gate of Inward Perfection on the north side, which grants access to the Gaoling–Dehna highway and other destinations such as Misty Palms, Peining and Omashu; the Gate of Outward Perfection on the south side, which grants access to the highway to Cranefish Town, the Khanate and, ultimately, Andorra and Freeport; and the Gate of Ordered Peace on the east side, which opens onto a road tunnel that links the city to its airship docks and railway station.
Sea
Ba Sing Se has two harbours which handle all passenger and freight maritime traffic to and from the city.
The Grand Harbour (Terran: 大港) is the main seaport of Ba Sing Se, located at the western edge of the city on the central axis perpendicular to the royal palace. The docks, which are amongst the largest in the world, handle all international trade, in addition to private yachts, government transport and some internal trade. Comfortable fast ferries that link Ba Sing Se to other destinations in the Central Sea and the Earth Kingdom, including Misty Palms, Polaris and Freeport, call at the Grand Harbour. Because Earth Kingdom government policy strongly favours directing all external trade to the Grand Harbour, it is a perpetually busy facility that serves as the economic heart of the Earth Kingdom.
The Southern Harbour (Terran: 南港) is the secondary seaport of Ba Sing Se, located outside the Gate of Outward Perfection in the Lower Ring. This harbour is much smaller than the Grand Harbour, but nonetheless plays a major role in the city economy. Notably, the harbour is the only authorized docking point for passenger ships carrying migrants from the rest of the Earth Kingdom and handles freight in undesirable and noxious goods, such as coal, chemicals, manure and livestock. Owing to a lack of customs facilities, no international trade is permitted at the Southern Harbour.
Air
To ostensibly preserve the impenetrable reputation of Ba Sing Se's city walls, longstanding custom prohibits any air vehicle other than the Earth King's personal airships from overflying any part of the city. As such, there are no aviation facilities anywhere in Ba Sing Se, save for two airship berts on the royal palace's Meridian Gate.
Passenger and freight air traffic heading for Ba Sing Se is instead handled at the Ba Sing Se Airship Dock, a large facility outside the city's eastern wall which features four full-sized berths for airships of any size. The facility is also notable for having two high-speed elevators, the first functioning bidirectional elevators in the world, to enable travel between the elevated dock structure and the ground level. Airships that call at the Ba Sing Se Airship Dock travel to destinations throughout the world.
Ba Sing Se Metro
The Ba Sing Se Metro (Terran: 永固城地铁) is a mostly underground rapid transit system which serves the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se. Comprised of a single circular, bidirectional rail line, the Metro has six stations which respectively serve the Harbour, the Royal Market, the Industrial Park, the Meridian Gate, Ba Sing Se University and the Zoological Garden. Most of the network is built as a shallow cut-and-cover tunnel beneath the streets of the Middle Ring, although changes in elevation result in the portion near the Royal Market running at ground-level and the presence of an elevated portion at the Grand Harbour. The Metro is a popular mode of transportation in Ba Sing Se, permitting fast travel between different neighbourhoods of the city. The trains that run on the Metro typically have three cars, which are segregated by class (i.e., the first car is for the upper class, the second for the middle class, and so on). The Metro is free.
Notably, the Metro does not provide service to any portion of the palace grounds owing to the highly restricted access limitations, though Meridian Gate station is located right outside the palace's eastern gate and serves as a popular commuting option for civil servants and other palace employees. There is also no station in the Lower Ring, in order to restrict the access of lower-class people to the rest of the city.
Intercity rail
Ba Sing Se has the world's first and largest intercity rail station, the Grand Central Station, which is located next to the airship docks outside the eastern city wall. The expansive facility, which has three platforms for intercity trains, is situated on the Royal Ba Sing Se Railroad, which connects the city to Cranefish Town. Future planned connections along the railway include Freeport, Casspital and Willowham.
A street-running tram is planned to connect Grand Central Station and the Airship Dock to the Metro's Meridian Gate station.