At Canton and along the south coast the hot season corresponds with the S.W. monsoon; the cool season--mid October to end of April--with the N.E. monsoon. Farther north, at Shanghai, the S.W. monsoon is sufficiently felt to make the prevailing wind in summer southerly.
_Provinces._--China proper is divided into the following provinces: Cheh-kiang, Chih-li, Fu-kien, Ngan-hui (An-hui), Ho-nan, Hu-nan, Hu-peh, Kan-suh, Kiang-si, Kiang-su, Kwang-si, Kwang-tung, Kwei-chow, Shan-si, Shan-tung, Shen-si, Sze-ch'uen and Yun-nan. See the separate notices of each province and the article on Shêng-king, the southern province of Manchuria. (X.)
The Palaeozoic formations of China, excepting only the upper part of the Carboniferous system, are marine, while the Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits are estuarine and freshwater or else of terrestrial origin. From the close of the Palaeozoic period down to the present day the greater part of the empire has been dry land, and it is only in the southern portion of Tibet and in the western Tian Shan that any evidence of a Mesozoic sea has yet been found. The geological sequence may be summarized as follows:--
_Archean._--Gneiss, crystalline schists, phyllites, crystalline limestones. Exposed in Liao-tung, Shan-tung, Shan-si, northern Chih-li and in the axis of the mountain ranges, e.g. the Kuen-lun and the ranges of southern China.
_Sinian._--Sandstones, quartzites, limestones. Sometimes rests unconformably upon the folded rocks of the Archaen system; but sometimes, according to Lóczy, there is no unconformity. Covers a large area in the northern part of China proper; absent in the eastern Kuen-lun; occurs again in the ranges of S.E. China. In Liao-tung Cambrian fossils have been found near the summit of the series; they belong to the oldest fauna known upon the earth, the fauna of the _Olenellus_ zone. It is, however, not improbable that in many places beds of considerably later date have been included in the Sinian system.
_Ordovician._--Ordovician fossils have been found in the Lung-shan, Kiang-su (about 50 m. east of Nan-king), in the south-west of Cheh-kiang and in the south-east of Yun-nan. Ordovician beds probably occur also in the Kuen-lun.