bounded N. by Mongolia, W. by
Turkestan and Tibet, S.W. by Burma, S. by Tongking and the gulf of that
name, S.E. by the South China Sea, E. by the East China Sea, the Yellow
Sea, Gulf of Chih-li and Manchuria. Its area is approximately 1,500,000
sq. m.

This vast country is separated from the rest of continental Asia by
lofty tablelands and rugged mountain ranges, which determine the general
course--west to east--of its principal rivers. On the north and west the
Mongolian and Tibetan tablelands present towards China steep escarpments
across which are very few passes. On the S.W. and S., on the borders of
Yun-nan, high mountains and deep valleys separate China from Burma and
Tongking. On the narrow N.E. frontier the transition from the Manchurian
plateau to the alluvial plain of northern China is not abrupt, but,
before the advent of railways, Manchuria afforded few and difficult
means of access to other regions. Thus China was almost cut off from the
rest of the world save by sea routes.

I. THE COUNTRY

Western China consists of highlands often sparsely, and eastern China of
lowlands densely peopled. Western China contains the only provinces
where the population is under 100 per sq. m. From the Tibetan and
Mongolian tablelands project mountain ranges which, ramifying over the
western region, enclose elevated level tracts and lower basins and
valleys. East of this mountainous region, which extends into central
China and covers probably fully half of the kingdom, are, in the north
a great alluvial plain and in the south a vast calcareous tableland
traversed by hill ranges of moderate elevation (see Sec.Sec. _Mountains_ and
_Geology_). In north-eastern China there is only one mountain system,
the group of hills---highest peak 5060 ft.---forming the Shan-tung
peninsula. This peninsula was formerly an island, but has been attached
to the mainland by the growth of the alluvial plain. Besides the broad
division of the country into western and eastern China it may also be
considered as divided into three regions by the basins of its chief
rivers, the Hwang-ho (Yellow river) in the north, the Yangtsze-kiang in
the centre, and the Si-kiang (West river) in the south. In the northern
provinces of Kan-suh and Shen-si the basins of the Hwang-ho and
Yangtsze-kiang are separated by a mountain chain with various names--the
eastern termination of the Kuen-lun range of central Asia. These
mountains, in China, attain, in the Tsing-