SANTUAO-FOOCHOW
TRADE IN 1932
A447
The most significant feature of the year at Santuao was the inclusion of the whole of Samsa Inlet within the port limits and the conversion of the Maritime Customs Junk Station at Tungchung, the gateway to the inlet, into a sub-office of the Santuao Customs. This change had the desired effect of discouraging merchants from seeking to evade payment of interport duty by shipping the produce of the district, especially the tea upon which the prosperity of the port depends, by inland water vessels either from Tungchung or direct from the producing centres within the inlet.
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In this 34th year of its existence as an open port, little change can be noticed in the character of the trade of the Santuao district from that carried on during the preced- ing 33 years. Tea was and still is the mainstay of the port, but the year under review was a particulary lean one for that business which was partly due to bandit inter- ference and partly to damage done to the plants by the typhoon of 1931.
CHINESE TELEGRAPHS
DIRECTORY
Fee Veng Fiang, manager
Wei Yü Daw, clerk-in-charge
關海福 Fu hai Kwan
CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME
Commissioner-Wong Haiu Sing
Assistant-K'o Yu-p'ing
Boat officer-S. F.Z. Siegfrids
Tidewaiter-P. H. Shaw
SOCONY-VACUUM CORPORATION
Hsu Baik King, agent
FOOCHOW
州福
Fuh-chau
Foochow (or Fuh-chau-fu) is the capital of the Fukien province. It is situated in lat. 26 deg. 20 min. 24 sec. N., and long. 119 deg. 20 min. E. The city is built on a plain on the northern side of the river Min, and is distant about thirty-four miles from the sea, and nine miles from Pagoda Island, where foreign vessels anchor.
The attention of foreigners was early attracted to Foochow as a likely place where commercial intercourse could be profitably carried on in the shipment of Bahea Tea, which is grown largely in the locality. Before the port was opened, this article used to be carried overland to Canton for shipment, a journey which was both long and difficult. The East India Company, as early as 1830, made representations in favour of the opening of the port, but nothing definite was done till the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The early years of intercourse with the natives were anything but what was anticipated. The navigation of the river was difficult, there was no market for imports, and several attacks by the populace rendered the port an undesirable place of residence for some time. It was not until some ten years after the port had been opened that there was much done in the export of tea from the interior, but after that the quantity shipped increased largely, and Foochow became one of the principal tea ports in China. From 1880, however, when the tea trade of the port reached its highest figure, the prosperity of the place waned until 1928, when a steadily increasing trade revival was apparent.
The city is built around three hills, and the circuit of what used to be the walled portion is between six and seven miles in length. The walls were about thirty feet high and twelve feet wide at the top. The streets were narrow and filthy, but during recent years remarkable improvements have been carried out, the walls being torn down and replaced by a wide motor road, the narrow streets have been widened to permit motor traffic.