Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 765

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

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CHINA

AREA AND POPULATION

China proper, extending over 1,335,841 square miles, is divided into eighteen provinces. According to the latest official estimates the area and population of the various provinces are as follows:-

Anhui

Chekiang

Chihli

Fukien

Honan

Hunan

Hupeh

Kansu

Kiangsi.

Kiangsu

Kuangsi

Kuangtung

Kueichow...

Shansi

Shantung.

Shensi

Szechuen

Kirin ...

Province,

Heilungkiang (Manchuria).

Yunnan.

Totals

Sinkiang

Manchu Military Organization Dependencies.

Tibet (Chinese Estimate)

Total...

Area, square miles.

Minchengpu Census, 1910.

Pop. per

square mile.

54,825

17,300,000

315

36,680

17 000,000

463.

115,830

32,571,000

281

46,332

13,100,000

282.

67,954

25,600,000

376

83,398

23,600,000

282

71,428

24,900,000

349

125,483

5,000,000

40

69,498

14,500,000

208:

38,610

17,300,000

448

77,220

6,500,000

84.

100,000

27,700,000

277

67,182

11,300,000

168

81,853

10,000,000

122

55,984

29,600,000

528

75,290

8,800,000

116:

218,533

23,000,000

105-

363,700

14,917,000

41

146,714

8,500,000

58

1,896,495

331,188,000

174

2,491,000

1,700,000

760,000

6,500,000

342,639,000

It is to be noted that the Chinese census, following all Oriental methods of calculation, is not to be trusted. There is no subject on which foreign and native statisticians are more contentious than that of the Chinese population. Experts vary in their estimates between 250,000,000 and 440,000,000.

Of

The total number of foreigners in China was ascertained in 1910 to be 141,868. these 65,434 were Japanese, 49,395 Russian, 10,140 British, 4,106 Germans, 3,377 Portu- guese, 3, 176 Americans, and 1,925 French, other nationalities being represented by less than 2,100. The number of Europeans has been somewhat reduced by the great war, but it is safe to say that the total of Japanese residents in China is considerably larger than in 1910. In the year 1907 the Imperial Maritime Customs compiled a table which showed the number of commercial firms to be 2,595. Japan headed the list with 1,416, followed by the United Kingdom with 490, Germany with 239, America with 112, France with 94, Portugal with 51, Spain with 40, Italy with 21, Russia with 20, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands each with 17, Denmark with 14, Norway with 9, Belgium with 6, and Sweden and a non-Treaty Power each with 1; but, as the British Commercial Attaché has remarked, much depends on the definition and status of a commercial firm.

The principal dependencies of China have been Mongolia, with an area of 1,288,035 square miles, and some 2,000,000 people; and Manchuria, with an area of 362,312 square miles, and an estimated population of 17,000,000. Outer Mongolia in 1912. asserted her independence of Chinese sovereignty, and obtained the formal recognition of Russia, but under the Russo-Chinese Treaty concluded in 1915. the suzerainty of China was recognised and the autonomy of Outer. Mongolia agreed to. Inner Mongolia is a dependency of China. Manchuria has in recent years been steadily and rapidly colonised by Chinese, who greatly outnumber the Manchus in their own land. Tibet, which is also practically a dependency of

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