The five dependencies are mainly arid, unproductive, and sparsely peopled. Their chief importance consists in the fact that they are "buffer states" between China proper and European states. They produce little except meat, wool, and live-stock. China proper is divided into provinces, each governed by a viceroy appointed by the throne. All business with foreign powers is transacted through a Foreign Office, the Wai-wu-pu (formerly the Tsung-li-Yamen). The government business is managed by a Grand Council whose members are advisers to the throne. The government is controlled mainly by Manchu officials. [Illustration: HONGKONG] Until within a few years China nominally allowed no foreign traders within her borders; recently, however, about forty cities, commonly known as "treaty ports," have been opened to the trade of foreign countries. Goods going inland any distance are required to pay a "liken" or internal tariff at the border of each province. Several concessions of territory within recent years have been forced from China by foreign powers: thus, Great Britain has Hongkong Island (with the peninsula of Kaulung) and Weihaiwei; Germany has Kiaochou on the bay of the same name; France has Kwang chau wan harbor. These concessions carry with them the control of the port and surrounding territory. The German concession includes the right to mine coal and iron, and to build railways within a territory of much larger extent. At the close of the war between Russia and Japan, the latter acquired Port Arthur, the gateway to Manchuria. Whatever may be the political significance of the opening of the treaty ports and the granting of the various concessions, the effect has been to increase the trade of the United States with China about twenty-fold. The imports from the United States consist mainly of cotton and cotton cloth, coal-oil, and flour. The chief exports to all countries are tea, silk goods, and porcelain ware. Most of those sent to the United States are landed at Seattle or San Francisco. Great Britain, through the port of Hongkong, has a larger trade than any other nation. Japan and the United States have most of the remaining trade. _Peking_, the capital, is politically, but not commercially, important. The part occupied by the foreign legations is modern and well kept. _Tientsin_, the port of Peking, is a larger city, with much more business. _Canton_, the largest city of the empire, and _Hongkong_, are the commercial centres of nearly all the British trade. Most of the American and Japanese trade centres at _Shanghai_. _Niuchwang_, on the Manchurian frontier, is important mainly as a strategic point. _Macao_, a Portuguese possession, is the open door of Portugal into China.