Directory_and_Chronicle_1911

CHUNGKING

1009

of the Yangtze. It is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall in good repair, which is some five miles in circumference, pierced with nine gates. This wall was built in 1761, replacing an older one. Chungking is now electrically lighted, a native company with an authorised capital of $300,000 having been formed for that purpose. The climate of Chungking is depressing, the summer being hot and damp, the winters raw and chilly, with thick fogs from November to March. Spring and Autumn can indeed hardly be said to exist. The ordinary rise of the river is about 75 feet; in 1892 it rose 90 feet, and on 6th August, 1898, to 101 feet, on 2nd August, 1903, it rose to 933 feet, the water not being able to force its way fast enough through the gorges. On the 11th August, 1905, the river rose to 108 feet. In 1908 it only attained a height of 52 feet 4 inches. According to a Chinese report the river rose 120 feet in 1878. On the left bank of the Kialing and facing Chungking, extending below the junction of the two rivers, is the walled city of Kiang-Peh-ting, formerly within the district of Li Min Fu, but now incorporated in Chungking Fu. These two cities and the large villages in their immediate neighbour- hood are estimated to contain a population of about 300,000.

The port was declared open to foreign trade in March, 1891, but business did not actually commence until the 18th June, since which date a large trade has been done both in imports and exports, carried in foreign chartered junks. The net value of the trade was larger in 1909 than it has ever been. It amounted to Tls. 32,463,698. In 1908 it was Tls. 31,173,410; in 1907 it was 27,045,904; and in 1906 Tls. 28,996,206. Rebellious disturbances in years past adversely affected trade, but recently the province has enjoyed comparative immunity in this respect. A rising, started in 1904 by a man who said be was commissioned by Heaven to wipe out the missionaries, was ruthlessly suppressed. One church was burned, and a few converts killed, and then "the Chinese officials caused shell to be fired into the mob until all (several hundred) were killed!" A local police force has been created.

The Yangtze is navigable for steamers from Iehang, not only to Chungking, but as far as Sui-fu, where the Min river joins the Yangtze, but before the Japanese war, steamers were not allowed to ascend above Tchang. By the Japanese Treaty of 1891, however, the right of steam navigation to Chungking was secured, and in the spring of 1898 the voyage was successfully accomplished by Mr. A. Little, with the small steamer Leechuen, which, however, being of limited power, had to be tracked up the rapids in the same way as junks. On 6th May, 1900, the two light-draught British gunboats ll'ondeork and Woodlark arrived from lehang, having left that port on 5th April. The return journey occupied 25 steaming hours. On 12th June, the Yangtze Trading Company's steamer, the Pioneer, commenced her maiden voyage and arrived at Chungking on 20th June. This steamer was afterwards purchased by the British Government. Several steamers have since been built for the Upper Yangtsze. The German steamer Suiksiang was wrecked on her first voyage sixty miles above Ichang. In 1909 the Szechuen Steam Navigation Co. put on a steamer of special design constructed by Messrs, J. L. Thornycroft & Co. in England, so far with very satisfactory results.

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