K. KIANG-NAN, or A'an-kin, may be considered as the second province in the empire, and is divided into two parts, each of which has a distinct governor. It con tains fourteen cities of the first class, and ninety-three of the second and third, besides innumerable towns and villages of considerable size and population. Kiang ning-foo, or Nankin, the capital, is said to have been, in former times, one of the most flourishing and splendid cities in the world, and is still the largest city in China. It is of a very irregular form, and is built upon several mountains, and its walls are said to be five and a half leagues in circumference ; hut it is spoken of in the most extravagant style by the Chinese, as having been, in an cient times, fifty and even ninety miles in compass ; or, as they express it, so large, that, if two horsemen had set out in the morning, at one of the gates, and galloped round it in different directions, they would not have met till the evening. It was, at one time, the residence of the emperor, and was then called Nan-kin, or the south ern court ; but, in all public acts, it is now named Kiang ning. Nearly one-third part of it is now &sent d by the inhabitants ; and scarcely a vestige remains of the mag nificent palace, observatory, temples, and monuments, which it once contained. Its gates are still beautiful, and a few of its temples arc in good preservation, among which is one, called the Porcelain Tower, about 200 feet high, which is divided into nine stories, to the first of which there is an ascent of forty steps, and between each of the others a stair of twenty-one steps. Near to Nan kin is the broad and deep river Yanp..,-tse-kiang, which furnished a commodious port to the city, but the naviga tion of which is now greatly neglected. In the months of April and May, great quantities of excellent fish are taken in this river, in the vicinity of the town ; and, being covered with ice, arc transported in boats to the court at Pekin. The streets of Nankin arc narrower than those of most other Chinese cities; but are finely paved, and much more free from dust and dirt, than those of Pekin. It contains many learned men, valuable libraries, and extensive booksellers' shops ; and its paper, ink, and other materials for writing and painting, are said to excel all others in the empire. The country around it is richly adorned with gardens, orchards, villas, &c.; but the most remarkable object in its neighbourhood is a wood of lofty pines, which is 'about twelve miles in circumference ; and in the centre of which is a mound, rising above the forest, covered with temples and sepulchral monuments. Soo-tclicoo-foo is the second city in the province, and one of the most agreeably situat ed in China. It is compared by Europeans to the city of Venice, with this difference, that the one is built upon the sea, and the other intersected by canals of fresh water. Its streets are narrow, and its shops present nothing remarkably striking. It is of great extent, and its walls inclose large portions of cultivated ground, with numerous fields and isolated buildings. It carries on a considerable commerce with Japan ; and its bro cades and embroideries, which are the principal manu factures of the place, arc in great request, as being at once the finest and cheapest in the empire. The neigh bouring country is delightful, the soil fruitful, the air temperate, the people polite ; and the whole spot is call ed by the Chinese, the paradise of the world. Its in habitants appeared to Mr Barrow to be more chearful, contented, and better clothed, than those of any other town that he had seen in China. The ladies, he observed, were dressed in petticoats instead of trowsers, which last was the costume in the northern provinces ; and this city is one of the places where young women are carefully educated in singing, music, and dancing, to be sold as concubines to the higher mandarins. To the west of the city is a range of mountains covered with wood, and along their base is the extensive lake Tai-hoo, famed for its fine fish and picturesque scenery. Tchan-tcheoo foo, is situated near the canal, through which all the boats from Sco-tcheoo-foo to Nankin must pass. It is celebrated for the excellence of its water, which is said to give a peculiarly pleasant flavour to tea, and for a kind of earthen ware, made in the district, which is sup posed to have a similar effect, and is therefore preferred by the Chinese to the finest porcelain. Hoai-ngan-foo is remarkable chiefly for its situation in a marsh, and stands upon ground lower than the canal which sur rounds it. It is thus in continual danger of inundations (to guard against which, it is inclosed by a triple wall ;) hut notwithstanding its hazard from the waters, it is suf ficiently populous and full of trade. Yang-tcheoo-foo is a city of considerable extent, intersected by numer ous canals, and provided with a multitude of bridges. The quay is formed of layers of straw and earth ; and the place is crowded with boats, a great proportion of which are employed in conveying salt, which is the sta ple commodity of the city. There are several pagodas in the town and its neighbourhood ; but though the de scriptions given of it by the Jesuit writers arc highly magnificent, JI. De Guignes pronounces the house of
the Ifoo-poo to be the only building worthy of notice. It bears the marks, however, of great antiquity ; and contains numerous ruins, overgrown with moss and creep ing plants, which indicate that its grandeur has greatly decayed. In its neighbourhood is one of those royal residences, which arc provided for the accommodation of the emperors, as they pass through the empire ; and which was built by the Emperor Kao-tsoo, of the dy nasty of Sooee. It is named Kao-min-chee, and consists of a tower, close by a pagoda, and surrounded by build ings, pavilions, and gardens. The tower is described De Guignes as one of the finest that he observed in China. It consists of five stories, with a covered gal lery- around the outside of each, and with sixteen win dows in each story. It has eight sides and eight gates, white walls, and the wood-work painted red, a large tree on the top, surrounded by a spiral of iron, and sur mounted by a gilded ball terminating in a point. Hoei tcheoo-foo, the most southern city of the province, and one of the richest in the empire, has mines of gold, ver, and copper, in its adjacent mountains ; and its inha bitants, who are temperate, frugal, and enterprising, are famed for preparing superior tea, varnish, and engrav ings. Fong-yang-foo is situated on a mountain, which overhangs the Yellow river, and Meioses several fertile little hills within its walls. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Hong-voo, the chief of a dynasty, who design ed to have made it the scat of his court, and gave it its present name, which signifies a the place of the Eagle's splendour ;" but finding that the inequality of the ground, and the scarcity of fresh water, would prove insuperable inconveniences, he changed his purpose, stopped his intended improvements, and removed his residence to Nankin. Three monuments of great extent and gran deur still remain, viz. the tomb of the Emperor's father, a magnificent temple of the god Fo, and a tower in the centre of the city, of an oblong form, and about 100 feet high. To this province belongs the island Tsong-ming, which is separated from the continent by an arm of the sea, about six leagues broad, and which was formerly a mere sandy desart, to which criminals were banished, and left to their own resources. By the exertions of those persons, and the assistance of a few poor Chinese fami lies, it was at first brought into some degree of cultiva tion, and is now a populous and tolerably fruitful spot. Its principal production is salt, which is extracted from a kind of gray earth in the following manner ; the earth is first smoothed and raised in a sloping form, that the water may not settle upon it ; and when the sun has dried its surface, it is removed and laid in heaps, which are car .:fully beaten on every side. It is then spread on large tables, a little inclined, and fresh water is poured upon it, which, as it runs off, carries along with it the particles of salt into a small canal, by which it is con veyed to a large earthen vessel. The earth, which has thus been freed from its salt, is thrown apart till it be comes dry, when it is again pulverized, and spread over the soil from which it was taken, when in a short time it is again impregnated with saline particles, which are again extracted as before. The salt-water, thus pro cured, is then boiled by the,women and children, and put into large iron basons, which they continue to stir with an iron spatula, till the aqueous parts be evaporated. file extent of this island is about twenty leagues in length and five or six in breadth. It has only one city, which is of the third rank ; but it is covered with villages, and intersected with canals.
This province extends from 31° to 34° north lati ;tide ; and its mean temperature, from the 30th of Octo be• to the 9th of November, was found to be 54° at sun rise, and 66° at noon : The sky at the same time was uniformly clear. The country is in general level, except in the neighbourhood of the river Hoang-ho. The soil, in the western part of the province, is a dry reddish clay ; the banks of the river are a yellowish clay, and the eastern division is chiefly light and sandy, but towards the south-east there is more of a good clay, and often a black fat earth. It is much intersected by rivers and canals ; and, being thus capable of being flooded in dry seasons, it is extremely valuable and fertile. Every part of it, also, has easy communication with the Yellow Sca, by means of the two great rivers Hoang-ho and Yang tse-kiang ; and it is thus considered as the central point of the home trade of China. Its cities are large, po pulous, and flourishing ; and it is one of the most ex tensive, commerical, and wealthy provinces in the em pire. Its silk stuffs, japanned ware, ink, and paper, are greatly valued ; and in one village alone, with its depen dencies, it is reckoned that 200,000 persons are employ ed in weaving cotton cloths. There are numerous salt pits on the coast, which yield an immense revenue to government. The inhabitants are civil, ingenious, and apt in the acquisition of learning ; and many of them have become eminent in the literature of the nation.