aty 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.

The inland divisions of the Chinese Empire have but little commercial
importance. Musk, wool, and skins are obtained from Tibet, into whose
capital, _Lassa_, scarcely half-a-dozen Europeans have penetrated. The
closed condition is due to the opposition of the Lamas, an order of
Buddhist priests. Mongolia is a grazing region that supplies the Chinese
border country with goats, sheep, and horses. It also supplies the
camels required for the caravan tea-trade to the Russian frontiers.
Eastern Turkestan is main