WENCHOW
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apartments. The Roman Catholic Missionaries have a spacious and imposing churcli in the western part of the city. The English Methodist Mission has a church capable of seating about 1,000 people. In 1903 this Mission erected a fine college at a cost of $20,000, containing sleeping accommodation for over 100 students, and teaching accommodation for more than 200. Early in 1906 an extensive and substantially constructed Hospital was also completed by the Mission at a further outlay of fully $20,000. The building consists of a central block and two wings after the style of Hunt's Block, Guy's Hospital, and can accommodate about 200 patients. Among the objects of greatest interest and curiosity are two pagodas situated on Conquest Island, abreast of the city. They are both of great antiquity, and the temples between them were for some time the retreat of Ti Ping, the last Emperor of the Sung dynasty, when seeking to escape from the Mongols under Kublai Khan. His Majesty Ti Ping has left behind him autographs preserved to this day in one of the temples. A few members of the Customs staff occupy foreign- built houses on the island. There were Boxer troubles in the Pingyang district several Christians being murdered, in 1900, and all the missionaries left Wênchow, where, however, the officials were able to maintain order. During the summer months some of the foreign residents repair to the Northern Hills (¤μÙ ), across he river where several bungalows have been built.
There is no foreign settlement at Wênchow, and the foreign residents are a mere handful, consisting entirely of officials and missionaries. There is a consider- able native export trade in tea, bitter oranges, tobacco, timber, charcoal, bainboos and kittysols, but manufactures do not flourish, though some excellent floor-matting and cross-stitch work are produced by local factories. The firms engaged in the timber trade are located in the west suburb, where are also the timber yards. Immense quantities of timber and bamboos are kept on hand.
During August and September of 1912 two abnormal freshets occurred in the Wênchow river, causing immense destruction of life and property. In the upper reaches of the main river the water rose 60 feet above normal level, washing away villages and carrying away houses bodily. Some 30,000 people are reported to have been drowned in the Yungchia, Chingtien, Ch'uchow and Juían magistracies. Such a calamity was unprecedented within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Two particularly severe typhoons in the summer of 1920 caused enormous damage in the neighbourhood. Haimen, a neighbouring city, about 85 miles by sea north-east of Wenchow, was partially destroyed on July 15th by a tidal wave with great loss of life; while in the Nanchi River valley, opposite Wenchow, an equally large loss of life was reported in the second typhoon between September 4th and 6th. In August 1923 and 1926 this port was visited by severe typhoons, although they did not cause much damage either afloat or
ashore.
TRADE IN 1934
Generally speaking, Wenchow was free from major disturbances throughout the year, and the population were able to pursue their avocations in peace. In this area, climatic conditions were also favourable, and both the first and the second rice crops were satisfactory. Statistics for that part of the trade of the port coming under Customs control, however, show a serious decline, cwing to a continuation of the tendency for merchandise to find its way both inwards and outwards through near-by places where Customs interport duty is not leviable. Juian, in particular, is often described as the back door" of Wenchow, as in recent years the former has had its own steamship communi- cation, under Inland Waters Steam Navigation Regulations, direct with Shanghai and Foochow. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that Wenchow is losing much of its former importance as an entreport for the dis- trict, and that both its trade and shipping returns are being adversely affected. The direct foreign trade of the port is inconsiderable, imports consisting of some sugar, petroleum products, and sundries, and exports amounting to a few consignments of salted vegetables shipped by junk to Hongkong from one of the junk stations controlled by Wenchow. Chiefly for the reasons give above regarding the diversion of trade to otherplaces, the value of Chinese produce imported coastwise during the year under review was only 6.5. million dollars as against 10.4 million in the previous year, while the value of the coastwise exportations of Chinese produce was only 5.5 million dollars
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