CHINA 



1341 



CHINA 



more than one-fourth of that vast continent. 

 In all the world only Russia (with Siberia) and 

 Great Britain and France with their colonial 

 possessions surpass it in size. No census has 

 ever made possible a statement of the exact 

 population, but the Chinese government in 

 1911 estimated it at 407,253,000 a population 

 greater than that of any other single nation 

 on the globe. The entire population of the 

 British Empire is greater, but it is scattered 

 all over the world, and is of every color, tem- 

 perament and language, while that of China is 

 compact and almost a unit as to race, language 

 and customs. 



Of this vast population over ninety-five per 

 cent live in what is known as China proper, 

 which comprises only about one-third of the 

 entire Chinese republic. Between this compact 

 southeastern portion and the other countries 

 of Asia lie the great Chinese provinces of Tibet, 

 Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia and Manchuria, 

 all of which are, either in their climate or in 

 their soil, inhospitable enough to be real bar- 

 riers against invasion. These buffer states ac- 

 count in large measure for the degree to which 

 China has been able to keep itself untouched 

 by influences from the outside world. Each of 

 them is treated under its own title in these 

 volumes, and the present article is concerned 

 only with China proper, unless otherwise 

 stated. 



Physical Features. In no other country is 

 the importance of rivers more evident than in 

 China. From the mountainous inland regions 

 they flow to the Pacific in roughly-parallel 

 courses, and in their fertile valleys is crowded 

 together a large proportion of the inhabitants. 

 Only two of these river basins that of the 

 Yang-tse-kiang or "Great River," and that of 

 the Hoang-ho, or "Yellow River" form great 

 plains, the rest of China being largely moun- 

 tainous. Both of these rivers, springing from 

 the mountain section where snow is heavy, are 

 subject to floods which keep the near-by lands 

 constantly fertile, but these floods have other 

 and less beneficial results. Sometimes they 

 are so vast that they sweep away the wonder- 

 ful works built to hold the river in its course, 

 bring death to thousands of people in their 

 basins, and by widespread destruction of crops 

 cause famine through the land. The Hoang-ho, 

 especially, which in twenty-five centuries has 

 altered its course eleven times, is treacherous, 

 and by its devastating floods has won for itself 

 the name of "China's Sorrow." 



In the north, west and south are mountains, 



those of the west being the highest. By no 

 means all of this mountainous section is lost 

 to cultivation, for the Chinese have shown 

 marked ability in adapting themselves to their 

 environment. The southeastern mountains, 

 steep in their higher slopes, are cultivated only 

 to a height of 2,000 feet or thereabouts, but in 

 the north, where the valleys are filled with a 



LOCATION MAP 



Showing, also, the proportion of the Asiatic 

 continent occupied by China. 



peculiar fertile soil called loess, the mountains 

 are often terraced to a height of 8,000 feet. 

 This inland mountain region is almost unknown 

 to travelers, except the most determined and 

 enterprising of them, and contains none of the 

 great cities. These, for the most part, are 

 situated along the coast, which is 2,500 miles 

 in extent, or on the rivers; and the rivers near 

 a great city present a remarkably busy and 

 crowded aspect (see illustration, CANTON). 



Of lakes China has a number, though none 

 of great size or importance. Practically all of 

 them are near the Yang-tse, and most of them 

 are shallow and in danger of being filled up 

 with silt from the river floods. The Chinese 

 are a most ingenious people, and in certain 

 of the lakes they have fashioned artificial float- 

 ing islands which are among the sights that 

 travelers flock to see. 



Climate. Nowhere is the statement that a 

 "temperate climate is one which shows extreme 

 heat in summer and extreme cold in winter" 

 better illustrated than in China, for though 

 almost the entire country lies within the north 

 temperate zone, the extremes of heat and cold 

 are great, except upon the seacoast. This is 

 accounted for by the fact that it is part of 

 a very large land mass, a "continental climate" 

 always showing much greater variations than 



