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THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

Wanhsien,  the  opening  of  which  is  provided  for  in  the
ritish  commercial  treaty  of  1902,  is  situated  on  the  Yangtze,
midway  between  Chungking  and  Ichang.
Hunan
Hunan,  South  of  the  Lake  ”  (Tungting),  consists  of
mountains  to  the  south  and  west,  with  the  Tungting  Lake
and  its  surrounding  alluvium  occupying  the  north-eastern
quarter.  Its  area  is  estimated  at  83,400  square  miles,  and
its  population  at  22,000,000.  Its  people  are  the  sturdiest
an  most  straightforward  of  the  provincials  of  China,  and
ey  have  never  allowed  the  Empire  to  forget  that  to  them
was  due  its  salvation  during  the  period  1853-63,  when  the
unan  levies  under  Tseng  Kwo-fan  arrested  and  turned
ack  the  advancing  wave  of  the  Taiping  rebellion  ;  from
t  at  time,  until  the  recent  formation  of  the  “New  Model  ’’
army,  the  Chinese  army  was  largely  composed  of  Hunanese
raves.  Anthracite  coal  is  mined  in  the  south-east,
1  ummous  coal  in  the  south  and  west,  and  from  the  west
come  antimony  3,nd  others  of  the  uncommon  metals.  The
a  uvia  lands  and  valleys  produce  rice  with  an  exportable
surp  us  of  over  a  million  piculs  annually,  tea  of  which
300,000  piculs  are  forwarded  annually  to  Hankow,  and
su  temperate  products  in  general  ;  and  large  rafts  of  timber
are  oated  down  the  Y  uan  River,  the  value  of  annual  floats
o  an  ow  being  estimated  at  upwards  of  ten  million  taels.
f r ° rme ïy^  a  vas1;  tra de  between  Canton  and  Hankow  passed
SiZ^T^  o'™  the  Chiling  Pass  and  down  the
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