Hankou (simplified Chinese: 汉口; traditional Chinese: 漢口; pinyin: Hànkǒu; Wade–Giles: Hankow) was one of the three cities whose merging formed modern-day Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers 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 of Hubei province.
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The city's name literally means "The Mouth of the Han", referring to its location on the north bank of the confluence of the Han and Yangtze Rivers. The name appears in a Tang Dynasty poem by Liu Changqing. Other historical names for the city include Xiakou (Chinese: 夏口), Miankou (Chinese: 沔口), and Lukou (Chinese: 鲁口).[1]
Hankou used to have five colonial concessions from the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany and Japan. The German and Russian concessions were administered by the Chinese government after the First World War. The British left in 1927 during the Northern Expedition after the Chinese Kuomintang forces seized the multimillion dollar concession from them, refusing to hand it back to the British.[2] The French and Japanese left after the Second World War.
On October 10, 1911, a revolution to establish the Republic of China and replace the Qing Dynasty led to the involvement of Hankou in the struggle between Hubei revolutionary forces and the Qing army, led by Yuan Shikai. Although the revolution began in Wuchang with a revolt started by members of the New Army, 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 Boxers in the Northern provinces around 1900. The flight of some missionaries from the T'ai-yüan massacre in Shan-si 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 Hankou, covering the province of Hubei. The dioceses in Wuchang, Hanyang, and elsewhere in the province, were subordinated to it.
"Hankou" remains a commonly used name for the part of Wuhan urban area north of the Yangtze and Han Rivers. The name was long preserved in the name of the old Hankou Railway Station (also known as Dazhimen Station, 大智门火车站), the original terminal of the Jinghan Railway. After the old Dazhimen station closed in 1991, the Hankou name was transferred to the new Hankou Railway Station, which opened in 1991 at a new location, farther away from central city. Railway passengers traveling to Wuhan need to purchase tickets to a particular station: the Hankou Railway Station, the Wuchang Railway Station (near central Wuchang, on the right bank of the Yangtze), or the new Wuhan Railway Station (which opened in 2009, also on the right bank, but a long distance from the historical Wuchang).
Nonetheless, Hankou is no longer the name of an administrative unit (e.g., a district), as its area now falls mostly within Jiang'an District, Jianghan District, and Qiaokou District. This contrasts with Wuchang and Hanyang, whose names have been retained in the eponymous administrative districts within the City of Wuhan.
| Wikisource has the text of the 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article Hankow. |
