1026
SZECHUAN-HANKOW
ICHANG-CHUNGKING
RAILWAY (I-Kwei Section)-Tel. Ad: Chukow; Codes ; Western Union, A.B.C. 5th Ed., Engineering Code
Woodforde H, Plant, chief accountant Richard W. Randolph, act. chief engr. Harry A. Raider, P, M. Ostrand, C. M. D. Meyer, F. O. L. Killorin, F. K.
Sah, L. C. Yen, W. D, Wong, J. G• Wong, senior assistant engineers
Li-teh
THE WEST CHINA TRANSPORT CO.
Mackenzie & Co., L.
Agencies
North China Insurance Co., Ld.
CHUNGKING
Chung-king
The city of Chungking, situated in lat. 29 deg. 33 min. 56 sec. N., long. 106 deg. 30 min. E., may well be described as not only the commercial capital of Szechuen, but of the whole of Western China. The foreign import trade centres here, and is then distributed by a smaller class of trading junks up the various rivers of the province, All exports-yellow silk, white wax, hides, leather, feathers, bristles, rhubarb, musk, opium, and the large assortment of Chinese medicines-are received, assorted, repacked, and shipped to Ichang, Hankow, and Shasi, consignments to the latter port being transhipped there into smaller junks, and forwarded to the southern provinces, via the Tung Ting lake,
The city occupies the end of a high and rocky bluff forming a peninsula, at the junction of the river Kia-ling with the Yangtze, 1,400 iniles from the mouth of the latter. The principal streets of the city, in which are many fine shops, are on the side of the Yangtze. It is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall in good repair, which is some five iniles 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 96 feet, and on 6th August, 1898, to 101 feet, on 2nd August, 1903, it rose to 93 feet, the water not being able to force its way fast enough through the gorges. On the 11th August, 1905, the river rose 108 feet. In 1998 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 in 1912 was Tls. 26,870,867 as compared with Tls. 29,139,172 in 1911. 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 he 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 Ichang, 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 Ichang. By the Japanese Treaty of 1894, 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