THE PROVINCE OF HONAN
By G. Whitfield Guinness, B.A., M.B., China Inland Mission.
The area of Honan is 67,940 square miles, and its population 35,316,800, with an average of 520 persons per square mile. Its longitude extends from 110° 20' to 116° 60' east of Greenwich, while its latitude is about the same as North Africa, Palestine, South California, and the north of Florida.
Populous, accessible, fertile, and with a good climate, the province of Honan forms an important sphere for missionary labour.
With one-fourth the area, it surpasses the collective populations of the three northern provinces of China—Kansu, Shensi, and Shansi.
The density of population in Kansu averages 82 persons to the square mile; in Shensi and Shansi it is 111 and 149 respectively; while in Honan it rises to 520 persons in a similar area. The most populous district in Europe is Belgium, "the small country of large cities," which crowds 6,000,000 people into its 11,373 square miles, giving an average of 550 to the mile, only just surpassing the density which {{sc|Honan maintains over a vastly larger area.
Honan is larger than England and Wales, its 67,940 square miles being somewhat in excess of the united area of England and Switzerland. It is irregularly triangular in shape, the vertical base of the triangle being placed to the east. The north-west and south-west sides of this triangle are mountainous, the remainder of the province being a
