NOTES CONCERNING CHINA.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 5 October 1901, Page 4

NOTES CONCERNING CHINA.

China claims for herself an antiquity of 2,271,256 years, and thinks Pan-ku, the first man, chiselled himself out of chabs (years). The surface area of the Chinese Empire is 18 times greater than that of Great Britain.

The coast line of the empire exceeds 3,500 miles, and the land frontier 4,400 miles.

The Century gives the total area of China as 4,218,401 square miles. The two great mountain ranges are the Tusin-ling, or Blue Mountains, and the Nan-Hug chain. The area drained by the great Yangtseking Eiver is 750,000 square miles.

The city of Pekin consumes nearly 450,000 tons of rice annually. Printing was invented by the Chinese about the beginning of the the tenth century.

The penal code of the empire is at least 2,000 years old, and under its provisions about 12,000 persons are annually executed. The edible dog of China is a small one of the greyheund-like form. The skin is almost destitute of hair.

The purest Chinese is spoken at Nankin and is called “ the language of the mandarins."

There is no distinction of parts of speech in the Chinese language, and no recognition of the principle of inflection.

The relations of words are ascertained by their position in a sentence. Hence Chinese grammar is solely syntax.