Hankou ' onMouseout='HidePop("32275")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Wade-Giles">Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system for the Mandarin language used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles' was the main...
: Hankow) was one of the three cities the merging of which formed modern-day
Wuhan' is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in central China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han River...
, the capital of the
Hubei' is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 , an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting...
province,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Hankou ' onMouseout='HidePop("32275")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Wade-Giles">Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system for the Mandarin language used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles' was the main...
: Hankow) was one of the three cities the merging of which formed modern-day
Wuhan' is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in central China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han River...
, the capital of the
Hubei' is a central province of the People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is 鄂 , an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the Qin Dynasty. The name Hubei means "north of the lake", referring to Hubei's position north of Lake Dongting...
province,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. It stands north of the
HanThe Han River is a left tributary of the Yangtze River with a length of 1532 km. Historically it was referred to as Hànshuǐ and the name is still occasionally used today....
and
Yangtze RiverThe Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , Tibetan: Bri-chu, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon....
s where the Han falls into the Yangtze. Hankou is connected by bridges to its former sister cities Hanyang (between Han and Yangtze) and Wuchang (on the south side of he Yangtze).
Hankou is the main
port||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and/or transferring cargo. It is usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. The best ports have deep water in channels or berths, and protection from the wind and waves...
of Hubei province.
History
Hankou used to have five colonial concessions from the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The German and Russian concessions were administered by the Chinese government after the First World War. The British left in 1927 after Chinese nationalist riots. The French and Japanese left after the Second World War.
On October 10, 1911, a revolution to establish the
Republic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, is a state in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition and jurisdiction over China into a democratic state with limited international recognition and jurisdiction only over Taiwan and minor islands, though it...
and replace the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
led to the involvement of Hankou in the struggle between Hubei revolutionary forces and the Qing army, led by
Yuan ShikaiYuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the...
. Although the revolution began in
WuchangWuchang was one of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stood on the right bank of the Yangtze River, opposite the mouth of the Han River...
with a revolt started by members of the
New ArmyThe New Armies were the modernized Qing armies, trained and equipped according to western standards...
, revolutionaries quickly captured major strategic cities and towns throughout the province, including Hankou on October 12. The Qing Dynasty Army recaptured Hankou later, but as the revolution spread throughout China, eventually the town and the province came under control of the Republic of China.
Hankow was the destination on the escape route of groups of missionaries fleeing the
BoxersThe Boxer Rebellion, more properly called the Boxer Uprising, or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in Chinese, was a violent anti-imperialism, anti-Christian movement by the "Righteous Fists of Harmony,” Yihe tuan义和团 or Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists in China , between 1898 and 1901...
in the Northern provinces around 1900. The flight of some missionaries from the
T'ai-yüan massacreTaiyuan Massacre was described in 1917 as "the great-plain city [lying] on the northern border of one of the central plains of the Shanxi". The massacre in Taiyuan of foreign Christian missionaries and of local church members, including children, from July 1900 was one of the more bloody and...
in
Shan-si' is a province in the northern part of the People's Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Jin , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
is recorded in the work
A Thousand Miles of Miracles in China" (1919) by Reverend A E Glover, one of the fleeing missionaries.
Before the Communist Revolution, Hankou was the seat of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of HankouThe Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hankou {Latin: Hancheuvensis, 中文: 漢口} is an archdiocese located in the city of Hankou in China.-History:* 1696: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Hupeh and Hunan from the Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian...
, covering the province of Hubei. The dioceses
in WuchangThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Wuchang {Latin: Uciamen, 中文: 武昌} is a diocese located in the city of Wuchang in the Ecclesiastical province of Hankou in China.-History:* December 12, 1923: Established as Apostolic Prefecture of Wuchang 武昌...
,
HanyangThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Hanyang {Latin: Haniamen, 中文: 漢陽} is a diocese located in the city of Hanyang in the Ecclesiastical province of Hankou in China.-History:...
, and elsewhere in the province, were subordinated to it.
Modern status
"Hankou" remains a commonly used name for the part of Wuhan urban area north of the Yangtze and Han Rivers. The name is preserved also in the name of the old Hankou Railway Station (closed in 1991) and the new Hankou Railway Station (opened in 1991 at a new location) serving this part of the city.
Nonetheless, Hankou is no longer the name of an administrative unit (e.g., a
districtThe term district, in the context of China, is used to refer to several unrelated political divisions in both ancient and modern China....
), as its area now falls mostly within
Jiang'an DistrictJiang'an District is a district of Hubei, China. It is under the administration of Wuhan city....
,
Jianghan DistrictJianghan District is a district of Hubei, China. It is under the administration of Wuhan city....
, and
Qiaokou DistrictQiaokou District is a district of Hubei, China. It is under the administration of Wuhan city....
. This contrasts with Wuchang and Hanyang, whose names have been retained in the eponymous administrative districts within the City of Wuhan.