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 [Page 6] that portion of the United States which lies east of the Mississippi. CHINA PROPER --------------------------------------------- PROVINCES | AREA | POPULATION | SQ. MILES | -------------------|-----------|------------- 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 [Page 7] 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. From the deck of the good ship _Lantao_, which had brought me from Boston around the Cape in one hundred and thirty-four days, I gazed with admiration on the Gibraltar of the Orient. Before me was a land-locked harbour in which all the navies of the world might ride in safety. Around me rose a noble chain of hills, their slopes adorned with fine residences, their valleys a chessboard of busy streets, with here and there a British battery perched on a commanding rock.