892
HANGCHOW
There
These
120 miles distant, can also be reached by boat from Hangchow with several tran- shipments: it is quicker
is quicker to go via Shanghai. Hangchow was declared open to foreign trade on the 26th September, 1896, in accordance with tlie terms of the Japanese Treaty. Steam launches ply regularly to and from Shanghai and to and from Soochow with passenger boats in tow, making the trip in from 18 to 24 hours. There are also three launches daily to Huchow and other places en route; also on Chien Tang river daily launches to Fuyang, Tunglu, Linpu, etc., started in 1912. is hardly any cargo carried by the latter between Hangchow and Soochow. launches go via Huchow and Nanzing and a service is also maintained between Keeling, Soochow and several inland places. The Hangchow-Shanghai companies formed a combination some years ago and have a monopoly of the trade. Attempts made by outsiders to come in have always failed after a few trips. The railway, however, is proving a serious rival, and the rapid and up-to-date service provided is an increasing attraction to all classes of passengers. The station adjacent to the Foreign Settlement is known as Konzenchiao() for which passengers change at Hangchow city or Kenshanmen stations.
One of the sights of Hangchow is the famous western lake, dotted with islets crowned with shrines and memorial temples, and spanned by causeways joining island to island. The general picturesque effect is heightened by temples, pagodas, and similar monuments judiciously placed in effective spots, while the slopes of the hills bordering the lake on the west are bright with azaleas, honeysuckle, and peach-bloom; and clusters of bamboos, several kinds of conifers, the stillignia, camphor tree, and maple in rich profusion, all help to make the scene very pretty. Tasteful foreign-style houses and villas are also springing up along the lake shore, and plans for a motor scenic road around the lake are in course of preparation. The western wall of the city has been pulled down and made into a broad lake shore promenade some two miles in length with spacious gardens. Indeed, the whole of this district has been laid out with a series of imposing tree-bordered thoroughfares, all of great length and width and comparing in no way to their disadvantage with the principal streets of any large city in the world. In this area the buildings are chiefly foreign-style, many of the Governinent offices and other premises being finely constructed and of impressive size. Several hotels, semi-foreign-style, have been opened, including one- near the city railway station, and others near the Public Garden on the Lake, besides one with western accommodation on the lake shore near the Imperial Island. A fine Y.M.C.A. building was completed early in 1920. The excursions around Hang- chow are numerous and extraordinarily picturesque; while those who can allow a month for the trip should not fail to explore the rapids of the Ch'ien-t'ang River as far as the Anhwei border. The crystalline water and constant alternation of picturesque gorges and park-like rolling country, the lofty heights, heavily afforested, to the sandy banks with every variety of conifer, camphor tree, scrub oak, maple, tallow tree, bam- boo, etc., combine to form a series of landscapes scarcely equalled in Japan. Sport of all kinds is to be had in profusion, including excellent fly-fishing.
The site selected for the Foreign Settlement extends for half a mile along the east bank of the Grand Canal; it covers over half a square mile and is four miles from the nearest point of the city wall. The Japanese settlement adjoins it on the North and is about the same size. The Customs-house and Commissioner's and assistants' residences are built on the Customs Lot, and there is also a Chinese Police Station in a modern building. The British Consulate is on the opposite side to the Japanese settlement and is not in the foreign settlement.
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The commodities chiefly dealt in are tin, Japanese copper, kerosene oil, soap, sugar, prepared tobacco, varnish, paper fans, silk piecegoods, raw silk and tea. The principal articles of export are tea and silk. The tea comes from Anhwei and Pingsuey near Shaohsing and from the neighbourhood of Hangchow, where the valuable Lungching tea is grown. The net value of the trade of the port (through the Maritime Customs) in 1919 was Hk. Tls. 18,365,178, as compared. with Hk. Tls. 18,688,082 in 1918. Seventy per cent. of the trade as a whole, however, probably passed through the internal barriers and not through the Customs. Some 3 or 4 miles south-west of Hangchow city lies the rising little town of Zahkou, situated upon the Ch'ien-t'ang River at the railway head. The Standard Oil Company of New York and several missionary establishments (including a large College) have their headquarters here. The Asiatic Petroleum Company is also shortly about to move hither. For residential purposes the hilly sites in the vicinity over- looking the broad estuary and open to sea breezes afford far more sanitary locations than the low-lying malarial settlement 10 miles away.