Directory_and_Chronicle_1932

884

LUNGCHOW

China. The frontier road runs from Dongdang on the railway, through Namkuan or Port de Chine to Lungchow, and carries at the present date a considerable amount of motor traffic, the distance of 54 kilometres taking on an average of about three hours. There is now only one Company-Chinese-owned with Head Office at Langson- engaged in this cross-frontier trade, but it is expected that the opening of the Lung- chow-Nanning motor road which is to take place in the very near future will cause the number of operating companies to increase. The intervening country is very beautiful and runs through very mountainous areas, in which are a number of rock caves, formerly the habitat of natives indigenous to the neighbourhood. Telegraphic communication exists with Canton and other places on the West River, with Mêngtsz in Yunnan viá Posé, and with places in Tonkin. The Chinese Post Office sends mails almost every day to Langson in Tonkin by motor under contract, and to Nanning overland every second day with connections to Canton and Pakhoi. An establishment of the Chinese Maritime Customs is maintained at the port where foreign interests are in the charge of Consuls resident on the West River and in Hongkong. There was a Catholic Church on the South side of the Tso-chiang, and the Emanuel Mission had a small orphanage in the surburbs outside the East Gate. The Consulate, Customs buildings and Missionary Church were completely looted and badly damaged during a Communist uprising in February, 1930. Since then, the town has been occupied by the Kwangsi troops who arrived from Nanning in Novem- ber to keep the place in good order and to suppress banditry in the surrounding districts. By the end of 1930, all the rich merchants and well-to-do Chinese who took refuge in Tonkin, had returned, while the Customs Office was reopened in March 1931, after a stay in Langson for the greater part of 1930. By June, 1931, the Customs buildings were repaired but the Consulate and Catholic Church are still unoccupied the French Consul, Mr. Aurillac, having to carry on his work from Hanoi. The Chinese- French frontier has been closed for nearly a year by the French officials, who demand an indemnity of Indo-China $390,000 for loss sustained by the Consulate and Missionary staff, before the frontier can be opened. No Chinese call cross the border though cargo from Tonkin or Hongkong is permitted to go through. The net value of the trade in 1930 was Hk. Tls. 110,003 as compared with Hk. Tis. 116,234, in 1929, Hk. Tls. 239,774 for 1928, Hk. Tls. 262,330 for 1927, Hk. Tls. 1,198,407 for 1926, and Hk. Tls. 555,804 for 1925. The trip up from Nanning usually takes from three to four days, and that down to Nanning about 30 hours, according to the water in the river, the level of which is liable to very sudden fluctuations during the rainy season of July and August. It has been known to rise as high as 75 feet, when the iron suspension bridge across the riveris only two feet above the flood. Motor boats carry most of the cargo from and to West River ports, whilst frontier trade is carried by small junks and rafts, and by carts on the overland routes which usually travel in convoys of some number as in Tonkin. The River scenery between Lungchow and Nanning with its succession of gorges and rapids is well worth seeing but accommodation for Europeans on the motor boats is not of a luxurious type though each vessel has one special cabin for official travellers. The climate of the port is damp and very hot for some eight months of the year, but the winter is cold enough to be very pleasant amid such picturesque surroundings.

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