Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/854

 732 CHINA

The chief towns are Mukdeu, the capital, with about 158,132 inhabi- tants ; NewchAvang (50,000) standing about 30 miles up the Liao river, at the mouth of which is the port of Ying-tse (60, 000) often called Newchwang. Besides Newchwang, Mukden, An-tung, Tatung-kau, Tiehling, (28,492) Tungchiangtzu, (7,299) and Fakumen, (19,432) are open to commerce. Other important towns are Hsin-min-fu (20,000), Liao-yang (40,000), Feng-hwang-cheng (25,000). In Kirin province is the town of Chang-chun (Kwangchengtze), with 80,000 inhabitants. The chief town in the Heilung- chiang province is Tsitsihar (30,000). In Manchuria, however, there are many other populous towns situated on the old trade routes.

The Manchu population, especially in the south, has been largely absorbed by Chinese immigrants, so that the southern province, being now connected with China by railway as well as by maritime trade, has become closely identified with distinctively Chinese interests. The lease of the southern extremity of the Liao-tung peninsula, containing Port Arthur, Talien-wan and other ports with the adjacent waters and islands, was by treaty of December 22, 1905, made over to Japan, and various concessions as to control and construction of railway's were granted.

The Manchurian railways extend from Shan-hai-kwan on the frontier of Chihli northwards to Hsin-min-tun and Mukden, and round the Liao-tung gulf to Port Arthur Avhich is directly connected with Mukden by the South Manchurian Railway (Japanese line) running northwards to Harbin, 615 miles from Port Arthur. There is a branch line of 75 miles from Chang-chun to Kirin. A line 16 miles in length of a metre gauge has been laid (1908) by local Chinese capital from near Tsitsihar to Ang-ang-ch'i for commercial purposes. A line from Sinmin Fu to Tsitsihar Fu (630 miles) is in project, to be surveyed in 1910. At Harbin the railway joins the line which runs for a length of 960 miles over Manchurian soil and connects the Siberian frontier with Vladivostock. The new town, Harbin, on the Sungari river, at some distance from the old town of the same name, is rapidly extending.

Early in 1913 the Chinese Government created two new official posts in Manchuria, that of Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese troops and that of Government Resident.

Tibet, extending from the Pamir region eastwards between the Himalayan and Kwen-lun mountains to the frontiers of China, has an area of 463,200 square miles with a population estimated at 6,500,000. Lhasa, the capital, has from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. The country being bleak and mountainous and strangers having been jealously excluded, wide regions are still unexplored.

Chinese authority Avas in the past represented by two Amhans who had charge, respectively, of foreign and military affairs. There were three Chinese commandants of troops at Lhasa, Shigatse, and Dingri where the permanent military force of about 4,600, provided by China, Avere mostly quartered. There were a few other Chinese officials, but the civil and religious administration of the country Avas left almost entirely to Tibetans. The head of the government is the Dalai Lama, Avho resides at the Po-ta-la (or palace) near Lhasa. He acts through a minister or regent (nomo-khan), appointed for life by the Chinese Government from among the chief Tibetan Lamas, and he is assisted by five ministers. One Tibetan frontier region was transformed into a Chinese province with Batung for its capital, and a Chinese military force having taken and pillaged Lhasa, the Dalai Lama fled to India, He was thereupon deposed by the Chinese, Avho un- successfully attempted to adopt measures for ascertaining and appointing a proper successor to the office.