ABSTRACT
In 1888, the first party of seven Canadian Presbyterian missionaries set sail for China. Their intention was to secure Honan province as the first mission field on the Chinese mainland of that Church, or indeed of any Canadian Church, following the start of their successful work in Taiwan a decade earlier. The mission field established by the Canadians in Honan comprised that portion of the province, nearly triangular in shape, which lay north of the Yellow River. Bounded by the river to the South, the towering Taihang mountains to the West, and the provinces of Chihli and Shantung to the East, the North Honan Mission field encompassed a population of some seven million people or one quarter of the entire population of the province. Markets and temple fairs, which were essential elements of inter-village relations and intra-village solidarity, figured prominently in accounts of the early missionary tours.
