CHAPTER XII - HANKOW, HONG-KONG, AND CANTON

Summary

I Spent four days very pleasantly at Hankow, during which time I was the guest of the Rev. Arnold Foster, of the London Mission. The river opposite the Bund is at least a mile wide, and looking up the river you see it crowded with Chinese junks and sampans, and on the same side as the Bund the native cities of Hankow and Hanyang, separated by the large river Han, which here joins the Yang-tze, and on the other side of the Yang-tze is the city of Wuchang. These three cities, which have grown up on the banks of the two rivers, while separate as civic communities, form one great centre of population, and it is, or has been, one of the most important commercial centres of the empire. The population of the three cities has been very variously estimated; we probably should not be very far out if we were to put it at something between a million and a million and a quarter. Remembering how closely the poor Chinese herd together, no one can look upon these cities without feeling that they contain an immense number of people. Besides those who dwell in the cities and suburbs, there is a very large boat population: the river Han presents the appearance of a perfect forest of masts.