, China
1895 - China

Chinese Empire, a vast territory in Eastern Asia, comprehending five great divisions (four of which are described under their heads), viz., 1. Manchooria; 2. Mon £ 3. Toorkistan; 4. Thibet; 5. China Proper, or the Nineteen Provinces, including the two large islands of Formosa and Hainan, the former being until lately reckoned in the province of Fo-Kien, and the latter being a department of Quang-Tong. Corea also is in some sense a part of the empire, being tributary to it, and Annam until 1874 was a tributary and nominally a vassal power, while Siam and the Loo-Choo Islands, though independent, are claimed by the Chinese as parts of their empire.

CHINA (chi'na) Proper, the S.E. portion of the Chinese Empire, occupying a third of its whole extent, lies on the eastern slope of the table-lands of Central Asia. In form it approaches to a square, covering an area of more than one and a quarter million of square miles, inhabited by more than 340 millions of the human race, living under the same government, ruled by the same laws, speaking dialects of the same language, studying the same literature, possessing a greater homogeneity, a history extending over a longer period, and a more enduring national existence than any other people of ancient or modern times. It is included between is and 40° N. lat. (which takes in the island of Hainan) and 98° and 124° E. lon. Its coast-line exceeds 2500 miles, and the land-frontier 4400 miles. A line running direct north and south would give a length of 1474 miles, and another, at right angles to this, 1355 miles; but one drawn diagonally from its northeast" extremity through Yun-Nan would measure 1669 miles. The area of China Proper is, according to the latest investigations, 1,313,061 square miles, or less than one third of the area of the entire Chinese Empire. Its area is also less than one-half that of the United States, as given in the census of 1890...

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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