1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hankow

HANKOW, China (see 12.919). At the mouth of the Han river a great commercial entrepôt is provided for China by the three large cities, Hankow, Hanyang and Wuchang, at the point where the Han flows into the Yangtsze. Prior to the commencement of disorder in 1911 the development of railway communications in the interior of China had largely increased the wealth and importance of this great distributing centre. Hankow, on the N. bank of the Yangtsze, is the terminus of the completed Peking-Hankow trunk line, and Wuchang, on the S. bank, the terminus of the line, in process of construction, from Canton. But during the turmoil of the revolution, and on more than one occasion thereafter, Hankow suffered materially because of its strategical importance to the contending factions. On Nov. 1 1911 two-thirds of the city was destroyed by fire as the result of a bombardment by the imperialists; nevertheless, the population of the three cities united was reckoned by the Maritime Customs in 1916 at 1,321,280 and in 1920 at about 1,500,000.

(J. O. P. B.)