With an area of about 1,500,000 square miles, or one-half that of Europe, China has a busy population of about four hundred millions; yet, so far from being exhausted, there can be no doubt that with improved methods in agriculture, manufactures, mining, and transportation, she might very easily sustain double the present number of her thrifty children.
Within this favoured domain the products of nature and of human industry vie with each other in extent and variety. A bare enumeration would read like a page of a gazetteer and possibly make no more impression than a column of figures. To form an estimate of the marvellous fecundity of the country and to realise its picturesqueness, one ought to visit the provinces in succession and spend a year in the exploration of each. If one is precluded from such leisurely observation, undoubtedly the next best thing is to see them through the eyes of those who have travelled in and have made a special study of those regions.
To more than half of the provinces I can offer myself as a guide. I spent ten years at Ningpo, and one year at Shanghai, both on the southern seacoast. At the northern capital I spent forty years; and I have recently passed three years at Wuchang on the banks of the Yang-tse Kiang, a special coign of vantage for the study of central China. While residing in the above-mentioned foci it was my privilege to visit six other provinces (some of them more than once), thus gaining a personal acquaintance with ten out of the eighteen and being enabled to gather valuable information at first hand.
A glance at the subjoined table (from the report of the China Inland Mission for 1905) will exhibit the magnitude of the field of investigation before us. The average province corresponds in extent to the average state of the American Union; and the whole exceeds that portion of the United States which lies east of the Mississippi.
CHINA PROPER
| PROVINCES | AREA SQ. MILES | POPULATION |
|---|---|---|
| Kwangtung (Canton) | 99,970 | 31,865,000 |
| Kwangsi | 77,200 | 5,142,000 |
| Fukien | 46,320 | 22,876,000 |
| Chéhkiang | 36,670 | 11,580,000 |
| Kiangsu | 38,600 | 13,980,000 |
| Shantung | 55,970 | 38,248,000 |
| Chihli | 115,800 | 20,937,000 |
| Shansi | 81,830 | 12,200,000 |
| Shensi | 75,270 | 8,450,000 |
| Kansuh | 125,450 | 10,385,000 |
| Honan | 67,940 | 35,316,000 |
| Hupeh | 71,410 | 35,280,000 |
| Hunan | 83,380 | 22,170,000 |
| Nganhwei(Anhwei) | 54,810 | 23,670,000 |
| Yünnan | 146,680 | 12,325,000 |
| Szechuen | 218,480 | 68,725,000 |
| Kiangsi | 69,480 | 26,532,000 |
| Kweichau | 67,160 | 7,650,000 |
| Totals | 1,532,420 | 407,331,000 |
CHAPTER II
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE PROVINCES—KWANGTUNG AND KWANGSI
Hong Kong—A Trip to Canton—Macao—Scenes on Pearl River—Canton Christian College—Passion for Gambling—A Typical City—A Chief Source of Emigration
Let us take an imaginary journey through the provinces and begin at Hong Kong, where, in 1850, I began my actual experience of life in China.