Health > Collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the National Government of the Republic of China

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A quarantine service may be compared with a fine sieve which prevents larger
particles (gross disease conditions) from passing through, but which permits the passage
of very fine particles (mild conditions of disease, persons in the incubation period).
From the point of view of preventing the exportation of disease, a quarantine service
can similarly take steps to prevent the sailing of persons ill with infectious disease or of
those who have been in close association with them. It may carry out prophylactic treat¬
ment or keep under surveillance persons for the incubation period of disease, although
this is not a usual practice. In regard to animals and goods, it may take steps to prevent
the loading of cargo unless satisfied it is free from rats or from contamination by organisms;
but all such measures must be so regulated that the degree of interference with personal
liberty and with trade is reduced to a minimum consistent with the objects aimed at.
2. Geography and Topography of the Country.
Chinese territory extends from latitude 530 N. to 180 N. and from longitude 740 E.
to 1340 E. The area is estimated at 4,278,352 square miles and the population at
485,508,838 persons.
The coastline, in the form of a semi-circle, is 2,150 miles in length from the mouth
of the River Yalu to the boundary of Tongkin, but when all the indentations are reckoned
it is approximately 5,000 miles in length. There are innumerable islands off the coast
in the central and southern parts. Shoals fringe the northern coastline and navigation
relies upon the channels made by the rivers — e.g., the Liao (at Newchwang); the Pei Ho
(at Taku for Tientsin), the Yang-tze-kiong (at Woosung for Shanghai).
A chain of volcanic islands separates the western portion of the Pacific Ocean from the
deeper waters of the central and eastern Pacific. The seas of China are all within this
barrier, and comprise the Yellow Sea, the Eastern China Sea, the South China Sea.
The better-known ports include Yingkou, Tientsin and Chinwangtao in Po-hai;
Chefoo, Wei-hai-wei, Tsingtao and Shanghai facing the Yellow Sea; Hangchow, Ningpo,
Wenchow, Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, all facing either the Eastern Sea or the Strait of
Formosa, and Canton facing the China Sea.
(a) Foreign Trade.
There are altogether 74 open ports — 26 in Manchuria, 1 in Siukiang, 3 in Tibet and
44 in China proper. Of the ports in China proper, Shanghai is the main centre of distri¬
bution, while Tientsin, Hankow and Canton occupy a position as secondary centres
respectively for North, Central and Southern China. The value of the whole trade of
each port for 1926 and 1927 1 in Haikwan taels (the value of one tael is approximately
three gold francs) was as follows:
Antung:
Net foreign imports 39,269,885 37>I7°>475
Net Chinese imports 4*885,337 4,711,890
Exports 49,003,589 63,648,551
1 China. Year-Book, 1930.