HARBIN
Harbin, the junction of the railways from Irkutsk to Vladivostock, and from Harbin to Kwangchengtze, where the latter joins the Japanese line to Dalny, has been made the seat of a Chinese Maritime Customs House to control the railway traffic by means of sub-Stations at Manchuria Station on the western frontier and Suifenho (Pogranit- chnaia) on the eastern frontier. Its situation on the railway is within comparatively easy land communication with large grain-producing districts as yet but sparsely populated and far from being fully cultivated, though development is increasing. It is on the banks of a river navigable for large but shallow-draught steamers, and is in direct and uninterrupted communication for six months during the year with the fertile land about Petuna S. W. and of Sansing N. E.; also with vast districts watered by the Amur River and those on the banks of the less important Ussuri River, near Habarovsk. Possessing advantages such as these, Harbin, important as it is at present, promises to become one of the greatest trading centres of China. The country around is a bean-growing country par excellence. North Manchuria being also essentially a wheat country, it follows that the flour industry at Harbin is a flourishing one, though less than formerly owing to restrictions on import into the Priamur. There is a sugar factory at Asiho on the railway, 26 miles east of Harbin, with a capacity of some 300 tons of beetroot daily, which it is intended to increase to 400 tons. The Harbin Municipality have a number of plans for improving the town, and a loan of some Roubles 3,000,000 has long been in contemplation, the proceeds of which are to be applied to drainage, waterworks, tramways, electric lighting of streets, improvement of telephone system, erection of a market building, town hall, etc. In 1919 the popula- tion of Harbin was estimated at 130,000, a figure considerably in excess of the pre-war population of any city in Siberia. This high figure was due to a sudden burst of pros- perity and to the constant influx of refugees, and it resulted in a veritable building boom.
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DIRECTORY
AMERICAN-ASIATIC UNDERWRITERS
N. N. Yakoonikoff, manager
Agents for
Hartford Fire Insurance Co. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. Great American Insurance Co. Globe & Rutgers Fire Insurance Co. Netherlands Lloyd, Ld.
AMERICAN RUSSIAN TRADING COMPANY, Im- port and Export Merchants-98, Bul- varney Prospect; Teleph 873; Tel. Ad: Amrustraco
F. L. Cole, manager
T, L, Lilliestrom
A, Rogenhagen
A. Gruenwald
B. A. Kaperoff
N. I. Travnikova V. Kibardin C. S. Sun
AMERICAN COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL Co., LTD., Import and Export Merchants, Engineers and Contractors, Oils, In- surance-Head Office: Harbin, 13, Sam- annaya Street
Agents for Andersen, Meyer & Co., Ltd. For other agencies see Andersen, Meyer & Co., Ltd., Shanghai
Charles Richter, resident director
and vice-president
Edwin Thacher, general manager
Carl Fick, accountant
S. Isakoff,
assistant
W. Stankevitch, do.
F. Borniakoffsky, do.
W. Chumak,
D. Liu, cashier
do.
L. Liu, shroff, in charge Chin ese staff Department of Engineering
Lee Hagood, manager
S. Izdebsky, assistant
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