KWANG-SI

kwang-si, a southern province of china, bounded n. by kwei-chow and hu-nan, e. and s. by kwang-tung, s.w. and w. by french indo-chino and yun-nan. it covers an area of 80,000 sq. m. it is the least populous province of china, its inhabitants numbering (1908) little over 5,000,000. the skias, an aboriginal race, form two-thirds of the population. the provincial capital is kwei-lin fu, or city of the forest of cinnamon trees, and there are besides ten prefectural cities. the province is largely mountainous. the principal rivers are the si-kiang and the kwei-kiang, or cinnamon river, which takes its rise in the district of hing-gan, in the north of the province, and in the neighbourhood of that of the siang river, which flows northward through hu-nan to the tung-t'ing lake. the kwei-kiang, on the other hand, takes a southerly course, and passes the cities of kwei-lin, yang-so hien, p'ing-le fu, chao-p'ing hien, and so finds its way to wu-chow fu, where it joins the waters of the si-kiang. another considerable river is the liu-kiang, or willow river, which rises in the mountains inhabited by the miao-tsze, in kwei-chow. leaving its source it takes a south-easterly direction, and enters kwang-si, in the district of hwai-yuen. after encircling the city of that name, it flows south as far as liu-ch'eng hien, where it forms a junction with the lung-kiang, or dragon river. adopting the trend of this last-named stream, which has its head-waters in kwei-chow, the mingled flow passes eastward, and farther on in a south-easterly direction, by lai-chow fu, wu-suan hien, and sin-chow fu, where it receives the waters of the si-kiang, and thenceforth changes its name for that of its affluent. the treaty ports in kwang-si are wu-chow fu, lung-chow and nanning fu.