There is a university in Peking and a number of colleges under foreign management. In 1911 there were five hundred and forty-five foreigners employed in educational work.

Government.—Until February 12, 1912, China was a monarchy, in practice almost absolute. Since that day it has been a republic under a president who holds office for a term of five years. Many changes were made at the time of the revolution. A cabinet was substituted for the old grand council, grand secretariat, and government council; the cabinet being composed of a prime minister, two associate ministers, the various ministers of state, and the heads of various boards. A privy council was also formed. Administration is carried on by the following ministries: (1) Of Foreign Affairs; (2) Interior; (3) Finance; (4) Education; (5) War; (6) Marine; (7) Justice; (8) Agriculture, Works, and Commerce; (9) Posts and Communications; (10) Colonies. There are also a large number of minor boards and offices, divided into twenty-two provinces for local administration.

Cities.—There were in 1910 about twenty-three towns with populations exceeding 50,000, but all figures are based upon estimates.

Peking1,000,000
Canton1,250,000
Hankow900,000
Tientsin850,000
Shanghai700,000
Fuchow650,000
Chungking600,000
Suchow500,000
Ningpo450,000
Hangchow400,000
Nanking300,000
Changsha250,000
Chinkiang200,000
Antung150,000
Wuhu130,000
Amoy120,000
Wenchow100,000
Swatow90,000
Chefoo90,000
Shasi85,000
Ichang70,000
Kongmun60,000
Wuchow60,000
Niuchwang50,000

Peking, or Pei-Ching (“Northern Capital”) is situated in a sandy plain, and is surrounded by walls with sixteen gates, each surmounted by towers one hundred feet high; and it consists, in fact, of two cities—the inner and the outer—known also as the Manchu or Tartar and the Chinese, the northern and the southern.

The walls of the Manchu city average fifty feet in height, and are fully sixty feet wide at the [683] bottom; those of the Chinese city (rectangular in plan) are thirty feet high and twenty-five feet wide. The circuit of the two cities measures twenty-one miles, including an area of nearly twenty-six square miles.

The Manchu or Inner City is divided into three portions; and at the heart of it are two enclosures, into the innermost of which entrance is forbidden to all except such as have official claims to admission. It is called the “Purple Forbidden City,” is very nearly two and one-quarter miles in circuit, and in it are the palaces of the former emperors and other members of the imperial family.

The T’âi Ho, or “Hall of Grand Harmony,” is built of marble on a terrace twenty feet high, and rising itself an additional one hundred and ten feet; its principal apartment is two hundred feet long and ninety feet wide. Surrounding the Forbidden City is the “August City,” about six miles in circuit, and encompassed by a wall twenty feet high. In the western part of the “August City” is the “Western Park” with a large artificial lake, a summer-house, gardens, the copper statue of Buddha (sixty feet high), and the temple of “Great Happiness.”

In the General City are the principal offices of the government, the observatory, the Provincial Hall for literary examinations, the Colonial Office, and the “National Academy.” In the northeastern corner is the Russian mission, and west from it the “Palace of Everlasting Harmony,” a grand monastery for over a thousand Mongol and Tibetan monks. A little farther west stands, amidst cypresses, the temple of Confucius. To the “Temple of Emperors and Kings,” near the south wall, the emperors went to worship the spirits of nearly two hundred predecessors. The great Tutelary Temple of the capital is grimy, and full of fortune-tellers. All the foreign legations and Christian missions are within the Inner City. The new Roman Catholic Cathedral is conspicuous.

The Chinese or Outer City is very sparsely populated; much of the ground is under cultivation or wooded.