The estuary of the Pearl River from the Bocca Tigris down to the Grand Ladrones, a distance of 70 miles, and from Hongkong westerly to the Island of Tungku, about 100 miles, is interspersed with islands. The strait which separates Hainan from the Peninsula of Luichau has been supposed to be the place called by Arabian travellers in the ninth century the Gates of China, but that channel was probably near the Chusan Archipelago. That group of fertile islands is regarded as the broken termination of the continental range of mountains running through Chehkiang.
The Island of Formosa, or Taiwan, connects the islands of Japan and Lewchew with Luçonia. Between Formosa and the coast lie the Pescadores or Panghu Islands, a group much less in extent and number than the Chusan Islands. The Chinese have itineraries of all the places, headlands, islands, etc., along the entire coast, but they do not afford much information respecting the names of positions.[14]
The first objects that invite attention in the general aspect of China Proper are the Great Plain in the north-east, and the three longitudinal basins into which the country is divided by mountain chains running east and west.[15] The three great rivers which drain these basins flow through them very irregularly, but by means of their main trunks and the tributaries, water communication is easily kept up, not only from west to east along the great courses, but also across the country. These natural facilities for inland navigation have been greatly improved by the people, but they still, in most cases, await the introduction of steam to assist them in stemming the rapid currents of some of their rivers, and bringing distant places into more frequent communication.
The whole surface of China may be conveniently divided into the mountainous and hilly country and the Great Plain. The mountainous country comprehends more than half of the whole, lying west of the meridian of 112° or 114° (nearly that of Canton), quite to the borders of Tibet. The hilly portion is that south of the Yangtsz’ kiang and east of this meridian, comprising the provinces of Fuhkien, Kiangsí, Kwangtung, and sections of Hunan and Hupeh. The Great Plain lies in the north-east, and forms the richest part of the empire.
This Plain extends in length 700 miles from the Great Wall and Barrier Range north of Peking to the confluence of Poyang Lake with the Yangtsz’ in Kiangsí, lat. 30° N. The latter river is considered as its southern boundary as far down as Nganking in Nganhwui, whence to the sea it is formed by a line drawn nearly east through Hangchau. The western boundary may be marked by a line drawn from Kingchau in Hupeh (lat. 30° 36′), nearly north to Hwaiking, on the Yellow River, and thence due north to the Great Wall, 50 miles north-west of Peking. The breadth varies. North of lat. 35°, where it partly extends to the Yellow Sea, and partly borders on the western side of Shantung, thence across to the Bear Mountains and Shansí, its measure is between 150 and 250 miles; stating the average at 200 miles, this portion has an area of 70,000 square miles. Between 34° and 35° the Plain enlarges, and in the parallel of the Yellow River has a breadth of some 300 miles from east to west; while further south, along the course of the Yangtsz’, it reaches nearly 400 miles inland. Estimating the mean breadth of this portion at 400 miles, there are 140,000 square miles, which, with the northern part, make an area of about 210,000 square miles—a surface seven times as large as that of Lombardy, and about the same area as the plain of Bengal drained by the Ganges. The northern portion in Chihlí up to the edge of the Plateau is mostly a deposit of the yellow loess and alluvial on the river bottoms; that lying near the coast in Kiangsu is low and swampy, covered by lakes and intersected by water-courses. This portion is extremely fertile, and furnishes large quantities of silk, tea, cotton, grain, and tobacco. The most interesting feature of this Plain is the enormous population it supports, which is, according to the census of 1812, not less than 177 millions of human beings, if the whole number of inhabitants contained in the six provinces lying wholly or partly in it be included; making it by far the most densely settled of any part of the world of the same size, and amounting to nearly two-thirds of the whole population of Europe.[16]
THE GREAT WALL.
The public works of China are probably unequalled in any land or by any people, for the amount of human labor bestowed upon them; the natural aspect of the country has been materially changed by them, and it has been remarked that the Great Wall is the only artificial structure which would arrest attention in a hasty survey of the surface of the globe. But their usefulness, or the science exhibited in their construction, is far inferior to their extent. The Great Wall, called Wan-lí Chang Ching (i.e., Myriad-mile Wall), was built by Tsin Chí-hwangtí, in order to protect his dominions from the incursions of the northern tribes. Some portions of it were already in existence, and he formed the plan of joining and extending them along the whole northern frontier to guard it. It was finished B.C. 204, having been ten years in building, seven of which were done after the Emperor’s death. This gigantic work was probably a popular one in the main, and still remains as its own chief evidence of the energy, industry, and perseverance of its builders, as well as their unwisdom and waste. Its construction probably cost less than the usual sums spent by European States for their standing armies. It commences at Shanhai wei or Shanhai kwan (lat. 40°, long. 119° 50′), a coast town of some importance as on the boundary between Chihlí and Shingking, and a place of considerable trade. Lord Jocelyn describes the wall, when observed from the ships, as “scaling the precipices and topping the craggy hills of the country, which have along this coast a most desolate appearance.”
It runs along the shore for several miles, and terminates on the beach near a long reef. Its course from this point is west, a little northerly, along the old frontiers of the province of Chihlí, and then in Shansí, till it strikes the Yellow River, in lat. 39½° and long. 111½°. This is the best built part, and contains the most important gates, where garrisons and trading marts are established. Within the province of Chihlí there are two walls, inclosing a good part of the basin of the Sangkan ho west of Peking; the inner one was built by an emperor of the Ming dynasty. From the point where it strikes the Yellow River, near Pau-teh, it forms the northern boundary of Shensí, till it touches that stream again in lat. 37°, inclosing the country of the Ortous Mongols. Its direction from this point is north-west along the northern frontier of Kansuh to its termination near Kiayü kwan, through which the road passes leading to Hami.
From near the eastern extremity of the Wall in the province of Chihlí, extending in a north-easterly direction, there was once a wooden stockade or palisade, forming the boundary between Liautung and Kirin, which has been often taken from its representation on maps as a continuation of the Great Wall. It was erected by the Manchus, but has long since become decayed and disused.