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Kiaochow

(Encyclopedia)Kiaochow jēouˈjōˈ [key], former German territory, area c.200 sq mi (520 sq km), along the southern coast of Shandong prov., China. Its administrative center was the city of Qingdao. Germany leased...

Pratas Island

(Encyclopedia)Pratas Island do͝ongˈshäˈ [key], in the South China Sea, controlled by Taiwan and administered as part of Kaohsiung. A national park, the island is part of an atoll and has guano deposits. It was ...

Nerchinsk

(Encyclopedia)Nerchinsk nyĕrˈchĭnsk [key], city, SE Siberian Russia. Founded in 1654, the city was a Russian outpost in E Asia from the 17th to the 19th cent. A Russo-Chinese border treaty signed at Nerchinsk in...

Song Shan

(Encyclopedia)Song Shan sŭngˈ shänˈ [key], mountain, N central Henan prov., China; one of the five sacred mountains of China. It is famous for the Shaolin Temple, where generations of Buddhist monks have practi...

Six Dynasties

(Encyclopedia)Six Dynasties, period of Chinese history between the fall of the Han dynasty (a.d. 220) and the unification of China under the Sui dynasty (a.d. 589). It is named for the six successive dynasties that...

Yellow Sea

(Encyclopedia)Yellow Sea or Huanghai hwäng-hī [key] [yellow sea], arm of the Pacific Ocean, between China and Korea, where it is called the West Sea. It has a maximum depth of 500 ft (152 m). Bohai, Korea Bay (or...

Yumen

(Encyclopedia)Yumen yü-mŭn [key], city, NW Gansu prov., China. It was long one of China's leading petroleum centers, with oil fields and refineries, but output has steadily declined since the 1960s. Yumen, on the...

Wenzhou

(Encyclopedia)Wenzhou or Wenchow both: wŭn-jō [key], city (1994 est. pop. 449,700), SE Zhejiang prov., SE China. It is a small deep-sea port on the Ou River 12 mi (19 km) from the East China Sea and a major trade...

Kunming

(Encyclopedia)Kunming ko͞onˈmĭngˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,240,000), capital of Yunnan prov., S China, on the northern shore of Dian Chi Lake. It is a major administrative, commercial, and cultural center ...

Turkmenistan

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Turkmenistan to͞orkmyĕˌnyĭstänˈ [key], republic (2015 est. pop. 5,565,000), 188,455 sq mi (488,100 sq km), central Asia. It borders on Afghanistan and Iran in the south, Uzbekistan in the...