102
SPITZEL & Co., Louis, Merchants
L. Spitze!
W. S. Collins
館賓西
PEKING-TIENTSIN
See-pin-kwan
L. Tallieu (absent)
A. F. Chamot, signs per pro.
A. Brandt
Miss E. Chamot
Tallieu & Co., L., Storekeepers and Com- | Wouters d'Oplinter, Chevalier de., Leg
mission Agents
Adviser to the Tsung-li Yamen
Farth
TIENTSIN
Tientsin is situated at the junction of the Yun Ho or Hwae River, better know the Grand Canal, with the Pei-ho in Lat. 39 deg. 4 min. N., Long. 117 deg. 3 min. 56 seg It is distant from Peking by road about 80 miles, but the bulk of the enormous tra between the two cities is by the river Pei Ho as far as Tungehow (13 miles fi Peking) and thence by carts and wheelbarrows over the once magnificent but dilapidated stone causeway. The traffic is now, however, being diverted to railway, which was opened in 1897, Tientsin was formerly a place of no importa and till recently had few historic associations; till the end of the Ming dyna (1644 A.D.) it was only a second rate military station, but as the northern terminu the Grand Canal it gradually assumed commercial importance, and by the end of seventeenth century had become a great distributing centre. The navigability of Pei Ho for sea going junks ceases at Tientsin and this made it the emporium the very large quantities of tribute rice yearly sent up to the capital, after!, Grand Canal Shoaled up so as to be unfit for carriage in bulk. The expedition the allies in 1858-61 greatly enhanced the importance of the city as it then prq to be the military key of the capital and an excellent base. It was here on J 26th, 1858, that Lord Elgin signed the treaty which was to conclude the war but w unhappily led to its prolongation. The temple in which the treaty was signe about a mile distant from the West gate, and is now inclosed in a small arse (Hai Kwan Tze) and surrounded by factories for the manufacture of small ammunition. It is worth a visit if only to see the large bell which, as usual, has interesting tradition associated with it.
During the long satrapy of Li Hang-chang the trade and importance of the developed exceedingly. Li, by the vigour of his rule soon quelled the rowdy for which the Tientsinese were notorious throughout the empire, and as he made city his chief residence and the centre of his many experiments in military and n education, it came to be regarded as the focus of the new learning and nati reform. The foreign affairs of China were practically directed from Tientsin du the two decades 1874-94.
The city will ever be infamous to Europeans from the massacre of the Fre Sisters of Mercy and other foreigners on June 21st, 1870, in which the most appal brutality was exhibited; as usual the political agitators who instigated the got off. The Roman Catholic Cathedral Church, which was destroyed on that occas has since been rebuilt, and the new building was consecrated in 1897. The build occupies a commanding site on the river bank. All the missions and many of foreign hongs have agencies in the city.
The population is reputed to be 950,000, but there is no statistical evidenc justify such large figures. The area of the city is far less than that of the Portsmo boroughs with their 160,000, and the houses without exception are one storied. suburbs, however, are very extensive and there is the usual vagueness as to wh the town begins and ends. The city walls are quadrate and extend about 4,000 in the direction of each cardinal point. The advent of foreigners has cause great increase in the value of real estate all over Tientsin, and as new industries introduced every year, the tendency is still upward.
Li Hung-chang authorised Mr. Tong Kin-seng to sink a coal shaft at Tong S (60 miles N.E. of Tientsin) in the seventies; this was done and proved the precu of a railway, which has since been extended to Shan Hai Kwan for military purpo and in 1897 the line to Peking was opened. About 260 miles in all are open to goods passenger traffic. As usual the railway has brought all sorts of foreseen and
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