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SANTUAO
Santuao was voluntarily opened to foreign trade by the Chinese Government on the 8th May, 1899. The port includes the whole of the magnificent Santu Inlet, which is situated some 70 miles north of Foochow. The foreign settlement is on the island of Santu in the centre of the inlet. The harbour is certainly one of the finest on the China coast: the approaches to it are well-defined, and vessels of the largest size may enter at any time, regardless of the state of tide! H.M.S. Waterwitch surveyed the whole of the inlet in 1899, and an Admiralty chart has been published. A telegraph cable was successfully laid from the mainland to the Settlement in July, 1905, and communication established with all China ports. A new cable connecting the telegraph office at Santuao with the mainland was laid in May, 1921, and the incon- venience caused by receiving and dispatching all messages from the other side of the harbour, which had been experienced for four years previously, was thus removed.
The port of Santuao serves important tea districts. Much of the tea exported from Foochow to Europe is first shipped from Santuao; and there is a growing demand in North China for certain varieties grown in the neighbourhood. No build- ing operations worth mentioning have been undertaken at the port, and no modern methods have as yet been introduced in the manufacture of the principal local pro- ducts-paper and pottery, though excellent raw material is close at hand, especially extensive deposits of kaolin capable of yielding far superior pottery than is now brought on the market from this district. The iron mines in the districts of Kutien, Fuan, and Siapu, where the deposits were reported in 1918 to be of a promising nature, have not yet been properly exploited, and so far no smelting works at Santuao, as then anticipated, have been erected, so that a regular trade in this valuable mineral does not yet exist here. The chief towns of the district are Funing, Fu-an, Ningte, and Shouning. There is a prosperous and increasing junk-trade, and regular steamship communication with the provincial capital.
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TRADE IN 1931
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Political events, as a rule, have little effect on the trade of Santuao and nothing out of the ordinary in this respect has to be recorded for the year 1931. The district was somewhat disturbed by an invasion of Kiangsi com- munist forces in June but the danger soon passed. The anti-Japanese boy- cott towards the end of the year was actually more of a help than a hin- drance to local trade as it largely stopped smuggling from Formosa. The net value of the whole, Maritime Customs trade of the port increased by 50 per cent as compared with the previous year, for which the larger volume of tea exported is almost entirely responsible. The season was a good one, the export of teas of all kinds showing an increase of about 9,000 piculs over the 1930 figures. A typhoon of unusual severity, of which the centre passed over the port, was experienced on the 10th August. It wrecked the Custom House, and very little property in the whole district escaped damage, The First Cruiser Squadron, under Admiral Chen Chi-liang, visited the port on the 12th August and made Santuao its base for naval manoeuvres extending up to the 30th September, the first time this magnificent harbour has been used for such extensive naval operations.
The net value of the trade of the port for 1931, was Hk. Tls. 4.447,901 as compared with Hk. Tls. 2,965,525 in 1930, Hk. Tls. 3,376,320 in 1929 and Hk. Tls. 3,576,637 in 1928.