e been extended to the interior a
considerable distance. There are upward of twenty thousand miles of wire
communication, the most important, in many respects, being a direct
overland line between Peking and European cities. Inasmuch as there are
no letters in the Chinese language, the difficulties in using the Morse
code of telegraphy are very great. In some cases the messages are
translated into a foreign language before they are transmitted; in
others, a thousand or more words in colloquial and commercial use are
numbered, and the number is telegraphed instead of the word.

Most of the business between the natives and foreigners is carried on by
means of middlemen, or "compradors," and these include both the
commission merchants and the native bankers. They are intelligent,
thrifty, and trustworthy. They are the most capable merchants in Asia,
and have few if any superiors among the merchants of western nations. A
very large part of the retail trade of the Philippine Islands is carried
on by Chinese merchants.

The Chinese Empire consists of China and the five dependencies, as shown
in the following table:

---------------------+-------------+-------------
| | CAPITAL OR
STATE | POPULATION | CHIEF TOWN
---------------------+-------------+-------------
China proper | 380,000,000 | Peking
Manchuria | 7,500,000 | Kirin
Tibet | 6,000,000 | Lassa
Mongolia | 2,000,000 | Urga
Jungaria | 600,000 | Kur-kara-usu
Eastern Turkestan | 600,000 | Yarkand
---------------------+-------------+--------------

The five dependencies are mainly arid, unproductive, and sparsely
peopled. Their chief importance consists in the fact that they are
"buffer states" between China proper and European states. They produce
little except meat, wool, and live-stock.

China proper is divided into provinces, each governed by a viceroy
appointed by the throne. All business with foreign powers is transacted
through a Foreign Office, the Wai-wu-pu (formerly the Tsung-li-Yamen).
The government business is managed by a Grand Council whose members are
advisers to the throne. The government is controlled mainly by Manchu
officials.

[Illustration: HONGKONG]

Until within a few years China nominally allowed no foreign traders
within her borders; recently, however, about forty cities, commonly
known as "tre