Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Yang-chow Fu

YANG-CHOW FU, or Hang-chow Foo, a prefectural city in the Chinese province of Kiang-su, is situated on the Grand Canal in 32° 21′ N. lat. and 119° 15′ E. long. The walls are between three and four miles in circumference, and the streets both in the suburbs and in the city are well supplied with handsome shops. The temples, colleges, and other public buildings are fine and large, and there is generally a well-to-do look about the place. The flourishing trade of the town may be either the cause or the result of an almost Jewish predilection shown by the people for mercantile pursuits. Unlike Chinamen generally, they prefer trade to husbandry, and have earned for themselves pre-eminence as a community of shopkeepers. Another of their characteristics is their extreme superstition. Their observance of full moons and festivals exceeds in ritualistic display that which is commonly thought to be good enough for such occasions by their fellow-countrymen; and their jealousy for the honour of their gods has on more than one occasion led to religious outbreaks. The most violent of these fanatical ebullitions, so far as foreigners are concerned, occurred in 1868, when Mr Hudson Taylor first attempted to open a mission there. But Yang-chow Fu possesses an earlier historical connexion with foreigners. Marco Polo ruled over it for three years by appointment from Kublai Khan (? 1282–85). The great traveller speaks of it as “a noble city,” “which has seven and twenty other wealthy cities under its administration. . . . The people,” he adds, “are idolaters and use paper money.” They “live by trade and manufactures, for a great amount of harness for knights and men-at-arms are made there.” The population of the city and suburbs is estimated at about 360,000. In 1880 the value of foreign goods imported into the town amounted to about £96,956.