KWEIHWA (formerly known as Kuku Khoto), a city in the borderland between north-west China and Inner Mongolia.
Since the iith century it has been a frontier mart where Chinese tea and manufactures have been exchanged for Mongolian horses, skins and wool. It is the eastern terminus of a caravan route from Kobdo in western Outer Mongolia and is linked also with Sinkiang. Of the tea traffic along these routes 7o% is with Mongolia, 30% with Sinkiang. Though its trade is much smaller in volume, Kweihwa serves therefore essentially the same func tion as Kalgan, the major gateway from China into Mongolia. It has for long been a Mongol rather than a Chinese city and prior to 1(54 was the residence of the Mongolian Grand Lama. But now linked on by the Suiyuan railway more closely to the main centres of Chinese population, and being itself one of the foci of the Chinese agricultural colonization of Inner Mongolia hitherto pastoral, it is becoming increasingly Chinese and a local focus and seat of manufacture as well as a point of exchange. Manufacture is concerned solely with the wools, skins and furs brought in ex change for tea from pastoral Mongolia. The city is now included within the newly-formed province of Suiyuan, the creation of which registers the permanence of the Chinese colonization of this part of Inner Mongolia. The Chinese name Kweihwa now
significantly supersedes the Mongol form Kuku Khoto.
For early notice of Kuku Khoto see Astley's Collection (vol. iv.).
the capital of the province of Kwang-Si, China, situated in the north of the province, on the Kweikiang, at about 65o ft. above sea-level. It has communications. by river via Wu-Chow with Canton, and trades in silk, skins, etc. The lime stone rocks of the river side often have striking forms. The earliest recorded building dates from the Sui dynasty (A.D. 589 onwards), but the connection of the city and region with the Chinese empire has been intermittent. The population has been variously estimated at 80,00o-120,000.
the capital and route centre of the province of Kwei-Chow, China. It developed under the Ming dynasty and became the capital under the Manchus, who encouraged Chinese immigration into this region, previously inhabited mainly by Miao. The city stands at over 3,400 ft. above sea-level, and is said to be mainly an administrative centre. Its population is estimated at ioo,000.