Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/58

CANTON 

which of course hurts as much when it hits as American or English or any other shell—the pirates are only too glad to seek refuge among the hills and swamps. The pirates captured on such expeditions are usually taken to Canton and beheaded by the official executioners.

During the reign of the Empress Hsi-Tai-Hou, the Government appropriated $50,000,000 for the building of ships for the Chinese fleet. Tradition relates that instead of using the money for the purpose intended, the Empress built a magnificent summer palace, easing her conscience, in her own way, by building a marble boat near the palace.

 

WATI, a suburb of Canton, standing on the south bank of the Chukiang River, contains among other industries a shipbuilding plant, where sampans and other native Chinese craft are built for use by the river population of Canton. The city of Honan, really a section of Canton, stands on an island of the same name rising from the Chukiang River near Shameen and Namkwan. Honan has a population of about 100,000 people, most of them natives, employed in small