In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners.
The RMS Empress of China and her two running mates, the RMS Empress of India and the RMS Empress of Japan, created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century [REF].