MAY

Created by Imperial Edict only so recently as March 20, 1896, the Post Office may really be said to date only from after the Boxer rebellion of 1900. Its progress is one of the romances of modern industrial development. In 1901 there were 176 offices open; in 1910 there were 5,352. In 1901 10,500,000 articles were dealt with; in 1910 355,000,000 articles were handled. In 1901 126,800 parcels passed through the post; in 1910 this number had increased to 3,766,000, while the growth in every other branch of the service has been in similar proportion.

Provincial barriers are tending to disappear under this administration, for unlike the telegraph service, which is the most costly in the world, with increased charges for every province traversed, the postal service adheres to the principle of uniformity. Its postage rates are the cheapest in the world. Its record of achievement is extraordinary, for the service now extends from the Yellow Sea to Kashgar, from the Amur River to the fever-stricken borders of Tongking, while

the establishment of an overland service from Peking to Lhasa is well under way.