KANSU, the most north-westerly province of China. In shape it constitutes a long wedge thrust forward between Tibet on the south and Mongolia on the north. Its south-eastern border, adjoining Shensi province, is 90o miles inland from Shanghai. The greater part of it is drained by the Hwang-ho, part of whose upper course runs through the province from south-west to north east. With the exception of a few sandy plains mainly in the north, Kansu is dominated by high mountains, rising to io,000 feet or more in many of the ranges. Those in the north-west are known collectively as the Nan-shan and represent the prolonga tion of the northern loop of the Kunlun ranges of Tibet, which in the south of the province are directly continued from west to east in the Sik'ing-shan and Min-shan. For the most part, especially in the east, the province is characterised by rich loess terraces, deeply dissected by the Wei-ho river-system. The climate naturally shows great extremes. In winter, intensely dry cold winds blow from the tableland of Mongolia while in sum mer, which is the rainy season, the temperature sometimes rises above 100° F. The southern part of the province is at all times milder and wetter than the northern, but Kansu as a whole, because of its isolation, severe climate, and rugged topography, is one of the wildest regions of China.
Kansu in its present form as a province has only been recently constituted, but as a corridor region between China and the West its history probably dates back to the beginnings of Chinese civilization. From earliest times the Chinese have had contact with Turkestan by way of the natural passage afforded by the Wei-ho valley and the corridor along the northern base of the Nan-shan mountains, the alignment and continuity of these two sections of the route being preserved by intermediate tributary valleys of the Hwang-ho.
From the third century B.C. when China, consolidated under the Chin Dynasty, organised a defensive scheme against the steppeland nomads the function of the Kansu corridor as the key to the defence of the Western borderland becomes increasingly conspicuous. Under the strong dynasties, notably those of the Han and the Tang, the corridor was kept open and military colonies placed at strategic points along it. At such times too new influences from the West such as Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity reached China by this avenue of entry and overland trade with the West flowed through it, particularly under the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty. But during times of disintegration and weakness in China, numerous Tartar invasions penetrated along the route, and Lanchow-fu, the only early bridge-point on the Upper Hwang-ho, was an important base for further conquest in North China. As a separate province Kansu dates only from 1911. Prior to that it had for some years been united with Shensi, the two provinces being known as Shen-kan, and before 1882 it had been administered with Sinkiang as one province. The inclusion in the new Kansu of the long arm to the north-west was intended to secure the critical lowland approach to China from the Tarim Basin. In the middle of the nineteenth century
Kansu was richer and more populous than it is to-day. It suf fered severely from the great Muslim rebellions of that period and particularly from the revolt of 1861-77.
The population in 1923, according to the Post Office estimate, was a little less than six millions in an area of over 12 5,000 square miles, giving a density of 47 persons to the square mile. Thus, while it is the third Chinese province in point of size, it is the most thinly peopled. It is also the least Chinese in the com position of its population. One-third of the inhabitants are Muslims, in the main ethnically distinct from the Chinese and still retaining their own customs. The north-western districts and the area around Ningsia-fu, on the borders of the Ordos, are mainly Mongol in character. Along the western border there are many Tanguts and here too has occured an overflow from north east Tibet. In the mountains to the north-east of Sining-fu are some 50,000 "aborigines" speaking tribal dialects. The largest single element in the population, however, is Chinese and there has been immigration in recent years from Szechwan. Corre sponding to the diversity of racial elements is the great variety of languages in Kansu, especially in the west and north-west but Mandarin is spoken throughout the greater part of the province.
The mountainous character of Kansu and the precarious nature of the rainfall seriously handicap agriculture, but in the limited sandy plains, where irrigation is possible, abundant crops of millet, sorghum and Indian corn, as well as fruits, are grown. For years Kansu has been one of the chief opium-producing provinces of China ; the poppy is everywhere grown save in the Mohammedan western sections. Animal husbandry is dominant on the dry grassland, unsuited for cultivation, giving rise to the export of pastoral products such as hides, furs and wool, and the direct manufacture of coarse woollens and cloths. Leather-tanning and the woollen industry show great promise of future develop ment. Lanchow-fu, the capital city, is the only notable centre of industry and the chief market for provincial produce. Large deposits of precious minerals (of which gold and quicksilver are exported), iron-ore, petroleum and coal are known to exist ; coal is especially extensive in the neighbourhood of Kungchang-fu.
The inaccessibility of the province together with internal diffi culties of transport and communication have proved the greatest drawback to the development of its considerable mining and agricultural potentialities, but the comparatively early extension of the Lung-hai railway line to Sian-fu and thence to Lanchow-fu is projected and should greatly facilitate the development of Kansu by bringing its products into the world markets. The present railway terminus (Lingpao) in western Honan is a 25 days' journey from Lanchow-fu, but a postal courier line (the longest in the world) runs via Sian-fu, Lanchow-fu and Ansi-chow to Kashgar.