CHINA (CauNc-HuA MIN-Kuo), an im mense territory, stretching from the centre to . , the eastern extremities of Asia, and occupying nearly a third of the surface of that continent; between lat. 18° 20' and 56° N., and long. 73' and 135° E.• ' bounded north-by Siberia; west by Russian Turkestan, the Russian Pamir, Cash mere, etc.; south by India, Burma, Anam and the China Sea; east by Siberia, Korea and por tions of the North Pacific Ocean (Eastern Sea, and Yellow Sea) ; greatest length, west to east, about 3,000 miles; greatest breadth, 2,400 miles; area, about 4,300,000 square miles. This vast territory is usually divided into China Proper, which forms its nucleus, and the following dependencies: Manchuria (Chinese, Tunn-.tan-Sheng) com prises the extreme northeast portion of the Chinese Republic. It is bounded on the north by the river Amur and Russian territory, east by the Russian maritime province, west by Mongo lia, and south by the Gulf of Liao-Tung and Korea. It is divided into the three provinces Mukden, Hei-lung-Kiang and Kirin, the re spective capitals of which are Mukden, Tsitsi har and Kirin. The total area is 280,000 square miles. Mongolia is the name given to the vast levels of desert land which, interspersed with infrequent oases, stretches across the greater part of the north of China along the Siberian frontier. A large part of its area of 1,288,000 square miles is taken up by the Gobi desert.
The population is almost entirely nomadic. The chief town is Urga.. Eastern or Chinese Tur kestan is a mountainous region lying between the western tract of the Gobi desert and the Pamirs, and enclosed north and south by the ranges of the Tian-Shan and the highlands of Cashmere and Tibet. It possesses an area of 431,000 square miles. Theprincipal towns are Kashgar and Yarkand. aria or Dann goria, the smallest of the tributary states of China, lies to the northwest of Turkestan, on the banks of the Ili River, at the junction of Mongolia, Turkestan and the Russian province of Semipalatinsk. Its area covers 147,900 square miles, and its population is said to amount to half a million. Tibet comprises the mountain ous region lying between Turkestan and Nepal and Assam. On the east it adjoins China Proper, and on the west Cashmere. It covers an area of 651,500 square miles. Its capital is Lhasa. The authority exercised by the Chinese over their dependencies is by no means uniform. Some of the dependencies are closely connected with the empire, while others are merely tribe tary; and Tibet is so independent as to do little more than profess a nominal allegiance to the Republic of China.