.890
TENGYUEH (MOMEIN)—SZEMAO
DIRECTORY
CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS
Acting Conimr.-E. A. MacDonald Assistant-J. F. Maclennan
MISSIONS
AMERICAN LADIES' MISSION
SWEDISH MISSION
Examiner -A. J. Smith
1st Class Tidewaiter-C. W. Furey Medical Officer-Sein Hline
CONSULATE, GREAT BRITAIN-Cable Ad:
Britain
Consul-S. Wyatt Smith
POST OFFICE
Postmaster-Chu Chia jui
SZEMAO
茅思 Sz-máv
Szemao, opened to the Tonkin frontier trade by the Gérard Convention of 1895 and to British trade by the Burmah Convention of 1896, is situated in the south-western part of the Province of Yunnan in latitude 22 deg. 47 min. 29 sec. N. and longitude 100 deg. 46 min. E. It is a sub-prefectual walled town built on gently rising ground overlooking a well-cultivated plain. The elevation is 4,700 feet above the sea-level, and the population is estimated to be about 10,000. The climate is moderate, the temperature rarely exceeding 80 degrees (Fahr.) during the summer, and seldom falling below 40 degrees in the winter months. The place is distant from both Yunnan-fu (the capital of the province) and Mengtsz 18 days, from the French Laos frontier 6 days, and from British territory about 12 days. It was opened in the early part of 1897, and so far has not fulfilled the expectation of its potential importance as a trading centre.
The prevalence of malarial fever is responsible for the steady decline of this port, the population of which has been reduced, since the days of its greatest prosperity, in 1880, from a figure estimated at 80,000 persons to some 40,000 ten years ago and to 10,000 at the present time. The value of the trans-frontier trade of Szemao in 1930 was Hk. Tls. 126,658, as compared with Hk. Tls. 129,158 in 1929, Hk. Tls. 172,136 in 1928, Hk. Tls. 403,233 in 1927, Hk. Tls. 350,184 in 1926 and Hk. Tls. 260,255 in 1925. The smallness of the trade statistics has been attributed partly to the fact that, owing to the various routes in the neighbourhood of the port, effective supervision is difficult of attainment, and partly to the decline of the cotton trade the staple import article at this port-experienced during the past decade. In order to introduce a more effective control of the trans-frontier trade the Szemao Customs opened, towards the end of 1930, a sub-station at Ta-lo and also two collectorates at Mêng-lung and Mêng-lien on the south and western frontiers. It must be remembered, also, that the above figures only represent the value of that portion of the Szemao trade coming under the cognisance of the Szemao Customs, that is to say, goods which are im- ported or exported across the frontiers of Burma and Tonkin and which alone are classed as "foreign trade" of this port.