Hankow

Hankow (Han-k'au), a river-port of China, in the province of Hu-pei, at the junction of the Han River with the Yang-tse, 600 miles W. of Shanghai. Strictly speaking, Hankow is a suburb of the towns of Wu-chang and Han-yang, the three together forming one huge city. Vessels of large size can reach Hankow, the river being navigable to the city of Ichang, 420 miles higher up. Since 1862 Hankow has been open to foreign trade. The principal article of export is tea, of which one-fourth to one-third out of a total value of two or three millions of pounds exported annually is sent to London. Other articles of export are silk, oil, vegetable tallow, tobacco, lides, nutgalls, coal, musk, and wax. The chief imports are opium, cotton, piece-goods, woollens, metals, sugar, edible seaweed, sapanwood, 'llama' braid, dyes, matches, kerosene oil, and needles. The annual imports sometimes reach a value of over £6,000,000, the exports of over £5,000,000. Of its large trade with the provinces of the interior no statistics are published. Since 1893 a great cotton mill with 700 looms works twenty-two hours daily, making yarn and cloth from native cotton. In 1889 a decree of the emperor authorised the construction of a railway from Hankow to Peking, 700 miles in length. Before the Tâiping rebellion the three cities had a population of over 5,000,000; it is now about 1,700,000, Hankow having 750,000 of these.