Directory_and_Chronicle_1893

TIENTSIN

Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Huei river, sometimes called the Grand Canal, with the Peiho river, in lat. 39 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. N. and long. 117 deg. 3 min. 55 sec. E. It is distant from Peking by road about 80 miles. It was formerly only a military station, but towards the close of the 17th century it became a place of some importance. Since the Viceroy Li Hung-chang made Tientsin his residence during the busy part of the year instead of Pao-ting-fu, the provincial capital, the political importance of the place has necessarily much increased. A great stimulus to native building has also been imparted by the opening of the railway in 1888. The walled city is small compared with the suburbs, the circumference of the walls being only a little over three miles. The principal trade is carried on in the suburbs. The native city has the reputation of being exceptionally dirty. Of the local industries the distilling of samshu from kaoliang (sorghum) occupies a prominent place, and the enormous stacks of salt which line the east bank of the river are a striking feature. The salt is produced on the coast near Taku.

Foreigners live for the most part in the Concessions, British and French, situated about a mile and a half farther down on the south bank of the river. The British Concession possesses a handsome Town Hall completed in 1889, and a small recreation ground called Victoria Park.

Tientsin will always be famous for the Treaty signed by Lord Elgin in a temple since called the Treaty Temple, or Elgin's Joss-house, on the 26th June, 1858, and known as the Treaty of Tientsin. The port is also infamously notorious for the massacre of the French Sisters of Charity and other foreigners on the 21st June, 1870, by a Chinese mob, under circumstances of shocking brutality. The China Railway Company, which took over the Kaiping Coal Mining Company's line, has now extended railway communication to Tientsin by a line from Taku, about 80 miles altogether. The official inspection of the line by H.E. Li Hung-chang took place on the 9th October, 1888. The line may eventually be extended to Tungchow. Tientsin is also connected with Shanghai by telegraph, and in 1884 a line to Peking was opened. There are no means of estimating the population of Tientsin with any degree of certainty, but it can hardly exceed 300,000 including all the suburbs.

There is a fair foreign trade done at Tientsin compared with the other open ports; but the exports are very small compared with the imports. The Tea exported goes principally to Russia and Siberia, via Kiachta. In 1891, 379,901 piculs were exported by this route, compared with 306,482 piculs in 1890. A trade in Coal from the Kaiping mines has sprung up, the export for 1891 being 70,885 tons against 56,655 tons in 1890. Opium to the extent of 1,484 piculs was imported in 1891, against 1,505 piculs in 1890. The total value of the trade of the port in 1891 was Tls. 37,048,539, as compared with Tls. 34,131,668 in 1890.

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