186 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



products consist chiefly of tea, rice, silk, 

 cotton, indigo and fruit. 



Hangchow is the principal city of the 

 Chekiang province and contains about 

 350,000 inhabitants. It is now a treaty port, 

 and at one time was considered the finest 

 and most favored city of China. Situated 

 on the left-bank of the river, and near the 

 famous west-lake (Si-hu), with graceful 

 hills to its rear, the city is still beautiful in 

 its situation, and one can easily appreciate 

 the glowing accounts given of it by Marco 

 Polo and subsequent writers. 



During the Taiping rebellion it was 

 almost devastated and has never recovered 

 from that act of vandalism. In 1905 the 

 total net value of the exports and imports 

 was Taels 17,496,980. Hangchow was the 

 capital of the Chinese Empire during the 

 last half of the Sung dynasty, A. D. 1127- 

 1280. 



