Shendi

Shendi, a town in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the mudiria (province) of Berber, on the right bank of the Nile in 18° 1' N., 33° 59' E., and 104 m. N.N.W. of Khartum by rail. Shendi possesses small manufactories of leather, iron and cotton; extensive railway workshops and a government experimental farm. It is the headquarters of the cavalry of the Egyptian army stationed in the Sudan. Shendi lies within the "Island of Meroe" and is a town of great antiquity. Thirty miles north are the pyramids of Meroe. On the opposite (west) bank of the Nile is the village of Metemma, whence there is a caravan route across the Bayuda Desert to the Merawi (Merowe) by Jebel Barkal; this was the route followed by the desert column under Sir Herbert Stewart in 1884 in the Gordon relief expedition. In 1772 James Bruce stayed some time at Shendi - then governed by a woman - on his way to Egypt after visiting the source of the Blue Nile. When the Egyptians invaded the Sudan in 1820 Shendi, then a place of considerable size, submitted to Ismail Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt. In 1822, however, Ismail and his chief followers were treacherously burnt to death at Shendi by order of the mek (ruler) of the town, in revenge for the cruelties committed by the Egyptians. Later in the same year an Egyptian army from Kordofan razed the town to the ground, most of the inhabitants being massacred. From that period until the establishment of Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1898 Shendi was but a poor village. Its subsequent growth has been comparatively rapid. There is a considerable area of fertile land on either side of the Nile in the neighbourhood.

[[Sheng-King, Shen-King]], Or Liao-Tung, a province of the Chinese empire, in southern Manchuria. It occupies an area of 50,00c sq. m. and contains a population of 4,000,000. Its capital is Mukden, or, as it is otherwise known, Sheng-king, "the Flourishing Capital." The province includes the Liaotung peninsula, the most southern part of which, including Port Arthur, is leased to Japan.

Sheng-king is largely mountainous. A line drawn from King-chow Fu (41° 12' N., 121 ° 10' E.) N.E. to Mukden, and then south by west through Leaoi-yang and Hai-chung to Kai-ping and the sea, would define the level country. A large portion of the plain, being an alluvial deposit, is extremely fertile, but in the neighbourhood of the sea the saline exudation common in the north of China renders futile all attempts at cultivation. North and east of this district run numerous mountain ranges, for the most part in a north-and-south direction. The climate of Sheng-king is marked by extremes of heat and cold. In summer the temperature varies from 70° to 90° F., and in winter from 50° above to 10° below zero. The mountain scenery is extremely picturesque, and the trees and shrubs are such as are common in England, the mountain ash being the only common English tree which is there conspicuous by its absence. The most important rivers are the Liao-ho and the Yalu. The former takes its rise in Mongolia, and after running an easterly course for about 400 m., turns S.W., and empties into the Gulf of Liao-tung, in the neighbourhood of Ying-tsze, up to which town, 20 m. from the bar, the river is navigable for large junks. The Yalu rises in the mountains to the south of the plain, and empties into the Yellow Sea.

The chief cities, Mukden, Liao-yang, Niu-chwang, Port Arthur and Tairen (Dalny) are separately noticed. Niu-chwang is the chief port of the province. Sheng-king is well supplied with railways, Mukden being in direct railway connexion with Peking, Niu-chwang, Port Arthur and Tairen as well as with the Korean railways, and with Europe and Vladivostock by the trans-Siberian line. The Mukden-Peking railway follows the route of the imperial highway from Peking, which passes through the Great Wall at Shan-kai-kwan and along the shores of the Gulf of Chih-li, and after leaving Mukden divides into three branches - one going eastward to Korea, another going by Kirin and A-she-ho to San-sing, while a third diverges N. by W. to Fakumen, thence through Mongolia to Pe-tu-na, and then to Tsi-tsi-har, Mergen, and the Amur. Another road leads east from Niu-chwang to Fung-hwang-chung, now a station on the Mukden-Korea railway. The chief agricultural products are wheat, barley, millet, oats, maize, cotton, indigo and tobacco. Coal, iron and gold are also found in considerable quantities in various localities. (See also MANCHURIA and CHINA.)