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AMOY
seaward, divided by a high ridge of rocky hills having a fortified wall running along the top. A paved road connects the two. The entire circuit of the City and suburbs is about eight miles, containing a population of 300,000, while that of the island is estimated at 100,000 more. The harbour is one of the best on the coast; there is good holding ground in the outer harbour, and vessels can anchor in the inner, within a short distance of the beach, and be perfectly secure; the tide rises and falls from fourteen to sixteen feet. The western side of the harbour, here from six hundred and seventy-five -to eight hundred and forty yards wide, is formed by the island of Kulangsu. It is a picturesque little spot and maintains a rural population of 3,500 people. Eastward of Amoy is the island of Queinoy or Kinmun (Golden Harbour), presenting a striking contrast in the low foreground on its south shore to the high land on Amoy." The population of the city is, however, now estimated at 96,000.
Amoy ranks as a third-class city. It is considered, even for China, o be very dirty, and its inhabitants are unusually squalid in their habits. There are several places of interest to foreigners in the vicinity, and excursions can be made to Chang- chow-fu, the chief city of the department of that name, and situated about 35 miles from Amoy. The island of Kulangsu ["Drum Wave Island," from a hollow rock in which the incoming tide causes a booming sound] is about a third of a mile from Amoy, and the residences of nearly all the foreigners are to be found there, although most of the foreign business is transacted on the Amoy side. It is a remarkably pretty island, and will become exceedingly popular with tourists and holiday-makers as its attractions become better known. The island of Kulangsu was handed over by China as an International settlement on the 1st May, 1903. In the opinion of the Commissioner of Customs, Kulangsu bids fair to become one of the most charming little republics on the coast of China. The value of land on the island of Kulangsu has advanced 100 per cent. compared with the prices ruling a decade ago. Hotel accommodation is satisfactory, and an electric lighting plant was installed in 1913. There is a good club in the settlement, adjoining which is the cricket ground. A golf club has been formed and a course laid out on the Racecourse. The course is a sporting one, abounding in natural hazards, and is well patronised. A neat little Anglican Church has also been erected. A Japanese Settlement was marked out in 1899 and a fair number of Japanese, officials and others, reside there. There is a slipway at Amoy, owned and managed by foreigners. The Standard Oil Co. of New York have erected oil tanks at Sing-Su on the mainland, and close to the site of the new station of the Amoy-Changchow railway there are kerosene oil tanks, capable of turning out 4,000 tins a day, the property of the Asiatic Petroleum Company. The foreign residents number about 280. At the end of October, 1908, the Chinese Government welcomed part of the American battleship fleet at Amoy, the officers and men being entertained on a lavish scale.
Frequent and regular steamer communication is maintained with Hongkong, Swatow, Foochow and Formosa, and steamers occasionally run direct to the Straits Settlements and Manila. There has always been a comparatively good trade done at Amoy, and notwithstanding that the tea trade, for which it was long famous, has now practically disappeared, it is significant that the shipping tonnage employed by the port has quintupled since the decade 1864-73, and almost trebled since the decade 1874- 83. Until the shortage of shipping caused by the European war the tonnage figures for many years topped the million mark. In former times, before the glory of Amoy had departed, the staple export was Tea-the local product as well as the superior blends brought over from Formosa-but, largely owing to the deterioration of the local pro- duct and the indifference of the grower to the changing conditions of the foreign market, locally-grown tea has long since ceased to be exported, and the Customs Commissioner made a fairly safe prophecy that it only required the development of Keelung harbour to cause the total disappearance of the foreign tea merchant from Amoy. Before the Japanese obtained possession of Formosa the Formosan teas were "settled" and ware- housed in Amoy, whence they were shipped to the foreign markets. Now no Formosan tea is "settled" in Amoy, and with Keelung still unimproved to any considerable extent quite 50 per cent. of the Formosan product is being shipped direct to America from Kee- lung. The foreign tea merchant at Amoy has practically lost his occupation, and we are witnessing the fulfilment of the prediction that "the row of quaint, rambling, old hongs on the Amoy side, and many picturesque residences on Kulangsu will be offering for the occupation of the wealthy returned emigrant or the missionary school." There is a scheme for establishing a University at Amoy, funds for the purpose having been provided ov a native of the district who made his fortune in British Malaya; but bunding, drainage, jetties, roads, recreation grounds and similar public works still
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