KAN-SU, kfin's. The most westerly of the northern tier of Chinese provinces. It lies west of Shensi (q.v.), of which it originally formed a part, and is hounded on the north by the terri tory Ordos Mongols, and the desert of Gobi, on the south by Sze-ehuen, and on the southwest by Koko-nor (Map: China, B 5). From the time of K'ien-lung (1757) until the Mohammedan Rebellion of 1865, its jurisdiction extended west ward as far as Ili, and included the T'ien-shan Pe-lu, a distance of about. 2200 miles from Lan chow-fu, the capital of the province. Since the suppression of the rebellion all this Central Asian territory lies been formed into a new dominion known as Sin-kiang or the 'New Frontier,' and this new province forms the western boundary of Han-su. Its area is estimated to he 125.400 square miles. and its population about 10.000,000.
It is in the main mountainous, hut a few fertile valleys are found where good crops are raised. From Lan-chow-fu westward level ground begins, and the narrow belt which fornm the departments of Kan-ehow-fu and Su-chow-fu is very fertile and produces much grain. In the
IS miles from Su-cho• to the fortified gate of the Great Wall, called Kia-yil Kwan (ten miles beyond which the wall comes to an end), agriculture becomes less general. Tobacco ;s the finest product of the province, which, how ever, is rich in minerals, and rivals Shansi in both the richness anti the extent of its coal-fields. It takes from time eastern provinces cotton and wheat, and sends back tobacco (its own product), medicines, furs, skins, wool, felt, cattle, sheep, and mules, mostly the product of Koko-nor and the Alongol territory. The name is made up of the first syllables of the names Kan-chow and Su-chow, already mentioned. With Shensi it forms the Governor-Generalship of ,'hen- an, the Governor-General residing in Lan-chow-fu, the capital.