New Forces in Old China | Page 8

low ridge and from its crest, I counted no less than thirty villages in front of us, while behind there were about as many more, the average population being apparently about 500 each. For days at a time, my road lay through the narrow, crowded street of what seemed to be an almost continuous village, the intervening farms being often hardly more than a mile in width.
Imagine half the population of the United States packed into the single state of Missouri and an idea of the situation will be obtained, for with an area almost equal to that of Missouri, Shantung has no less than 38,247,900 inhabitants. It is the most densely populated part of China. But the Province of Shan-si is as thickly settled as Hungary. Fukien and Hupeh have about as many inhabitants to the square mile as England. Chih-li is as populous as France and Yun-nan as Bulgaria.
The density of China's population may be better realized by a glance at the following detailed comparison between the population of Chinese provinces and the population of similar areas in the United States:
{FIX THIS TABLE} Area Provinces Square miles Population Hupeh, 71,410 35,280,685 Ohio and Indiana 76,670 5,864,720 Honan, 67,940 35,316,800 Cheh-kiang, 36,670 1 Kentucky, 40,000 1,858,635 Kiang-si, 6819,47580 26 532,125 Virginia and West Virginia, 64}776oo 7,fi50S282 Michigan and Wisconsin, 111,880 22,876 340 Georgia, 50,g80 1,837 353 Shantung, 62 ooo 4 7?? 945 Shan-si, 81 830 12 200 456 Illinois, S6,ooo 3,826,8S l Shen-si, 776 8240 1 058,910 Ran-su, Icc.q80 10~385~376 California, 155,9 1,208,130 Sze-chuen, 218,480 68 724,890 Ohio, Ind., Ill., Ky., 173s430 11 350,219 Ngan-hwei, 54,810 23,670,314 New York, 47,600 5,997,853 Klang-su, 38,600 13,980,235 Pennsylvania, 44,985 5,258,014 Kwan-tung and Hainan, gg,g70 31,865,251 Kansas, 81,700 I,427,o96 Kwang-si, 77,200 5,142,330 Minnesota, 79,205 x ,301,826 Hunan, 83,380 22,169,673 Louisiana, 45,ooo Iw1
Perhaps the most thoroughly typical city in China is Canton. The approach by way of the West River from Hongkong gives the traveller a view of some of the finest scenery in China. The green rice-fields, the villages nestling beneath the groves, the stately palm-trees, the quaint pagodas, the broad, smooth reaches of the river reflecting the glories of sunset and moon- rises and the noble hills in the background combine to form a scene worth journeying far to see.
But Canton itself is unique among the world's great cities, and the most sated traveller cannot fail to find much that will interest him. After much journeying in China, we thought we had seen its typical places, but no one has seen China until he has visited Canton. With an estimated population of 1,800,000, it is the metropolis of the Empire. The number of people per acre may be less than in some parts of the East Side in New York, for the houses are only one story in height. But the crowding is amazing. The streets are mere alleys from four to eight feet wide, lined with open-front shops, so filled overhead with perpendicular signs and cross coverings of bamboo poles and mattings that they are in as perpetual shade as an African forest, and so choked with people that men often had to back into a shop to let our chairs pass. No wheeled vehicle can enter those corkscrew streets and we saw no animal of any kind save two cows that were being led to slaughter.
And the hubbub! Such shouting and yelling cannot be heard anywhere else in the world. Our chair coolies were in a constant state of objurgation in clearing a way. Everybody seemed to be bellowing to everybody else and when two chairs met, the din shattered the atmosphere. A foreigner excites a surprising amount of curiosity, considering the number that visit Canton. Troops of boys followed us and there was a good deal of what sounded like cat-calling. But it was all good- natured, or appeared to be.
The unpretentious shop-fronts often beckon to mysteries that are well worth penetrating--tobacco factories where coolies stamp the leaves with bare feet; tea, gold, dye and embroidery shops where designs of exquisite delicacy are exhibited; silk- weaving factories where fine fabrics are made on the simplest of looms; feather shops where breastpins and other ornaments are made of tiny bits of feathers on a silver base--a work requiring almost incredible nicety of vision and such strain upon the eyes that the operators often become blind by forty. Another curiosity is a shop where crickets are reared for fighting as the Filipino fights cocks and the Anglo-Saxon fights dogs. The Chinese gamble on the result and a good fighting cricket is sometimes sold for $100. The attendant put a couple in a jar for our alleged amusement and they began fighting fiercely. But I promptly stopped the melee as I did not enjoy such sport.
The river is one of the sights