Directory_and_Chronicle_1908

PAKHOI

海北 Pak-hoi

Pakhoi is one of the ports opened to foreign trade by the Chefoo Convention in 1876. It is situated on the Gulf of Tonkin in long. E. Greenwich 109 deg. 7 min. (106° 47′ of Paris), and lat. N. 21 deg. 29 min. The British Consul hoisted his flag on the 1st May, 1877, a French Consulate was established in December, 1887, and the foreigners were well received by the natives and continue to be respected even to the present day. Pakhoi is the port for the important city of Limehow, from whence considerable quantities of foreign piece goods, etc., were formerly distributed over the country lying between the West River and the seaboard, but now that the West River has been opened to steam navigation a part of the trade has been diverted to that route. The trade of Pakhoi is a declining one. Its net value in 1906 was Tls. 2,478,862, as compared with Tls. 2,824,423 in 1905, and Tls. 3,013,256 in 1904. Since 1888 the prosperity of the port has been steadily declining owing to the diversion of trade to Haiphong which has been rendered possible by the pacification of the surrounding territory, while the trade of Kwangsi has been diverted to the recently opened ports on the West River. The Chinese town is situated on a small peninsula, and faces nearly due north. It stands at the foot of a bluff nearly forty feet high, which deprives it of the south-west breeze in summer, while in winter it is exposed to the full force of the north-east monsoon, which very often blows so hard for several days that it materially interferes with the loading and discharging of steamers in the harbour. The bluff, or the plain above the town, is level for miles, which makes riding both on bicycle and on horse back a decided pleasure. The foreigners almost exclusively live on the bluff, which in former years was only dotted by a few European buildings, but has recently been ornamented with several new structures. From the bluff an extensive partly-cultivated plain develops, over which some sport is obtainable-snipe, plover, quail, and pigeons being found in large numbers, but duck and other water-fowl are not numerous. The climate is considered to be very salubrious. The estimated population of the port is 20,000. No port in China is more easily approached and entered than that of Pakhoi. The landmarks are conspicuous and unmistakeable. The channel is wide and deep and has no hidden danger to be avoided. The anchorage is a mile and a half from the Custom House. There is good landing at high water, but at ebb tide only for small boats. The construction of a railway by a French Company from Pakhoi to Nanning was authorised a few years ago, but the work on the project has not yet been commenced. More recently the leading Chinese residents of Limehowfu, the chief city in the Pakhoi district, have formulated an ambitious scheme of railway construction spreading out to Western Kwangtung and Kwangsi, with lines to Kweichow and Yunnan, but the realisation of this project is probably as distant as the other. A free school is now firmly established by the French Government to teach the French language to the Chinese and others. A French Post Office and the German Consulate are the latest additions to the foreign institutions at Pakhoi.

In 1906 a police force was established by order of the provincial government of Canton and the local merchants established a branch office of the Canton Chamber of Commerce.

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