HOIHOW
A515
representing 54 British, 10 German, 2 French and 4 Danish steamers that entered from, and cleared for, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Annam, Hongkong, etc. The situation of the port of Hoihow before and at its opening in 1876 was considered favourable more from the political than the geographical or topographical point of view as the Foreign Consuls at Hoihow would then be in close touch with the Taotai at Kiungchow.
The harbour of Hoihow is an open roadstead, unprotected against the North-east monsoon, which blows here with undisturbed vigour from September to April. The working of cargo is, therefore, normally difficult during those months, and at times im- possible. In addition to the above disadvantages those months are also the dry months when no rain falls up-country, and consequently no water comes down by the Po- Chung River to the sea. Again, the tides are more erratic in the winter than they are in the summer: sometimes there are two tides during the 24 hours, sometimes one, and sometimes none. Cargo then, having been loaded with difficulty into a cargo- boat alongside the importing steamer, has to face a stormy passage of two to three miles to the spit, which runs parallel to the town of Hoihow and a inile distant from it. Once at the spit the cargo-boat may be able to pole up the two miles of shallow muddy water which separates it from Hoihow. If a canal 7 feet deep and 300 feet wide were dredged on the Hoihow river between the neighbourhood of the Custom House and the spit, thus permitting junks, cargo boats and motor launches to navigate at all tides, it would be sufficient to meet present requirements of the trade and would not be an expensive undertaking, Several suggestions have been made for the improvement of the port of Hoihow and some even advocated the transfer of the port to Chinglan or Pochin but all these suggestions were impracticable both from the engineering and from the financial points of view. Chinglan, for instance, which has been much spoken of in the past, is situated on the East Coast, which, though not properly surveyed, is known to be lined with coral reefs and is nuch ́exposed to typhoons and S.W. monsoons in the Summer months. And it is far more expen- sive to open a new port than to improve an old established one, without taking into consideration the opposition such a change would create from local vested interests. Hoihow will therefore remain the port of Hainan and it is now being connected by good motor roads with all the principal towns in the island and, when financial conditions permit, the harbour may be improved. A motor road girding the island is almost completed.
As regards health, there is less fever in Hoihow than anywhere else in Hainan. There is excellent water to be had by the sinking of artesian wells, and several are already in existence both in the foreign Quarters and in the Chinese City. The water in the actual wells at Hoihow is brackish, partly from sea water that filters. into the wells and partly from the alkiline condition of the soil.
The trade of Hoihow remains more or less stationary. The native commercial com- munity of Hoihow is one that is always being drawn in different directions by op- posing interests. There is a Chamber of Commerce, which works in conjunction with the Five Guilds, representing the merchants of Canton, Swatow, Kochow, Fuh- kien and Hainan.
No foreign settlement has been formed at Hoihow for the very excellent reason that there is no space for such a settlement, unless the foreigners concerned were to see their way to disburse large sums of money in reclaiming the swamp on the verge of which the town of Hoihow stands. From Hoihow itself a tongue of dry land, known as the Tê Shêng Sha, or Victory Spit, runs westward for a distance of about a mile until it loses itself in the morass which there encompasses it on three sides. This strip of dry land is very narrow and has been entirely taken up. The consequence is that any future development, if any, must be out into the marshy ground that borders the Victory Spit.
With the exception of the Roman Catholic Orphanage, erected in 1895, the American Presbyterian Mission Hospital and doctor's residence, the Customs Indoor and Outdoor Staff quarters, the French School for Chinese, the French doctor's re- sidence, and the French Hospital, the houses occupied by the foreign residents are Chinese converted into European habitations by alterations and improvements. H.B.M. Consulate obtained a site after 14 years' negotiations, and a Consulate building was erected in 1899. This was closed in 1925 and the property sold to the Chinese Government in 1927; towards the end of 1897 a piece of land was granted, and a French Consulate has been built on the Northern side of the river and facing Hoihow