HUNAN — THE CLOSED PROVINCE OF CHINA 

 By William Barclay Parsons 



Of the eighteen provinces which constitute the Chinese Empire 

 proper, the only one which until recently had not been explored or 

 mapped by foreigners was the province of Hunan, extending from 

 the Yangtze to the Nanling Range, or between the 30th and 25th 

 parallels of north latitude and between the 109th and 114th meridians 

 of east longitude, a province with an area of about 80,000 square 

 miles and an estimated population of 21,000,000. Since the subject 

 of the development of the interior of China has been considered, the 

 province of Hunan has been regarded as one of the great objectives 

 of the railway and mining promoter on account of its well-known 

 wealth in coal and other minerals, the fertility of its soil, and the 

 superior ability of its people. The people themselves, however, are 

 the most clannish and conservative to be found in the whole empire, 

 and have succeeded in keeping their province practically free from 

 invasion b\' foreigners or even foreign ideas. 



In 1871 Baron Richtofen, the great German geologist, to whose in- 

 vestigations we owe the greater part of our knowledge of the geological 

 structure of China, made a trip from south to north across Hunan to 

 report on the coal areas of the province to the Shanghai Chamber of 

 Commerce; but his journey was confined wholly to boat travel, and 

 therefore the information that he obtained was very limited. Three 

 years previous to this Raphael Pumpelly, the American geologist, had 

 attempted to explore Hunan by proceeding by boat up the Siang 

 River from the Yangtze, l)ut he was not allowed to land, and finally 

 was forced by the people to turn back after having reached, but not 

 entered, the capital of the province, Cliangsha. In 1878 Mr G. J. 

 Morrison, an English engineer, traveled from north to south across 

 Hunan by boat, as he also was i)revented from making the journey 

 on foot. 



In the winter of 1898-'99, the writer, retained as chief engineer of the 

 American syndicate holding a concession for a railway from Hankau 

 to Canton, accompanied by a staff of American engineers, undertook 

 to conduct a survey from Hankau to Canton through the province of 

 Hunan and, of course, by land. In this attem[)t he was entirely 

 successful, making an instrumental survey for the entire distance — a 

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