WUCHOW
943
ocean-going steamers; but, during eight months in the year, vessels drawing not more than 3 feet can reach Kueihsien (150 miles beyond Wuchow), and Nanning (360 miles from here) can be reached by boats drawing 2 ft. almost all the year round. The population of the city and suburbs is estimated at 50,000; it is slowly increas- ing, more especially in the riverine suburbs, which comprise the business quarter. The annual inundations caused by the rise in the river-there is an average difference of 60 feet between the winter and summer levels are a source of great inconvenience to the inhabitants and at times bring about a total cessation of business. To obviate this, the principal steamship offices, the foreign Customs House and the native Customs and likin stations, together with numerous shops and hotels, are located on pontoons (locally known as Pais) moored alongside the river bank. The floods in 1914 were the highest on record, the water in the river rising to 73′ 3′′, but they were eclipsed by the 1915 floods, which rose to 79' 6", causing widespread ruin. The lowest winter reading was 2.5 deg. below zero in December, 1902. At the close of 1919, a number of merchants, with a view to modernising the port, formed a company for the construction of roads, godowns, etc., on the Pei Shan (I), which is free from highest flood; the demolition of the city wall was also included in the programme. In winter the only local industry worthy of mention is boat building; when the river falls the foreshore is lined with inatsheds, where native craft of all descriptions, from a huge salt junk to a diminutive sampan, are constructed. The situation of Wuchow makes it the natural distributing centre for the trade between Kweichow, Eastern Yunnan, Kwangsi, and Hongkong and Canton. The future is full of promise, and Wuchow in the course of a few years is sure to make a bold bid for second place as the largest trade mart in the south of China. Local merchants are making strenuous efforts to divert to Wuchow, via the Liuchow and West Rivers, the trade of south- eastern Kweichow, which is principally supplied via the Yangtsze. Attempts are being made to work the antimony, copper, and tin mines which abound in the Kwangsi Province. The gross value of the trade coming under the cognisance of the Maritime Customs has steadily grown from four to over seventeen and a half million Taels, and the revenue is five hundred thousand Taels, while the Native Customs control a junk trade worth over sixteen million Taels and collect 150,000 Taels duty. The principal articles of export are antimony, timber, oils (aniseed, cassia, wood and tea), indigo, hides, and live stock. The coal, which should form one of Wuchow's largest exports, still lies buried in the surrounding hills. There is daily steam communication with Canton, maintained by four Chinese-owned steamers. There are a number of steamers on the Hongkong-Wuchow run, chiefly cargo vessels, but passenger accommodation can also be obtained. Up to the end of 1917 the British West River Steamship Co. operated the passenger steamers, but they did not pay and were sold to a Chinese Company. Messrs. Banker & Co. have two regular vessels plying on the West River, and have recently placed a new vessel on the run the Kong Ning-which flies the British flag, is manned by British officers, and has first-class passenger accommodation. During the last few years a large native passenger trade has sprung up between Wuchow and up-river towns: launches leave daily during the summer months for Konghau, Kuaiping and Kueilisien, and a fleet of motor boats make regular trips to Nanning. Wuchow itself offers few attractions to the tourist, but the river scenery on the way up, especially between the Shuihing and Takhing Gorges, where the stream winds in and out among the green hills to form a succession of apparent lakes, is extremely picturesque, and has not altogether unjustly been compared to the Rhine. Wuchow is connected by telegraph with Hongkong, Shanghai, etc.; and the Chinese Post has established postal communication with the principal towns in Kwangsi.
DIRECTORY
亞細亞 A-si-a
ASIATIC PETROLEUM Co. (SOUTH CHINA),
LTD.
J. E. H. Druitt, local manager S. H. Clark
和天 Teen-Woo
BANKER & Co., Merchants and Commission
Agents Shipping Office: Banker's
Pontoon
-
Geo. Banker