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ICHANG
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navigation and rules of the road through the gorges are efficiently maintained by the Government, with three River Inspectors functioning between Chung- king and Ichang, night navigation having been introduced in 1936. The upward voyage to Chungking now takes between three and four days, and the return trip just under two days. The port is now connected by motor highway with Hankow and is an important station on the Hankow-Chungking and Shanghai-Chengtų air service lines. The Hupeh-Szechuan motor highway, which will pass Ichang, is under survey. The estimated Chinese population of Ichang is 110,000.
TRADE IN 1937
During the first quarter of the year the river level at Ichang stood so un precedentedly low that steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze was practically suspended. The lowest level was recorded on the 3rd April with the Ichang river-gauge registering 2.7 feet below zero, which was 1 foot lower than the previous lowest record of March, 1909. For a great part of this low-water period the Ming Sung Industrial Company attempted to maintain traffic on the upper river by transhipping cargo and passengers at Hsintan, about 40 miles above Ichang, but this proved a slow and expensive process. Upon re- sumption of steam navigation at the close of the low-water season in the middle of April the congestion of cargo was entirely cleared, but on the 2nd August all Japanese vessels were withdrawn, while the blockade on the Lower Yangtze later put a stop to all shipments of cargo between Shanghai and Ichang and vice versa. Fortunately, owing to the generally larger volume of trade during the early months of the year, the port value statistics were on the whole satisfactory, being as follow: direct foreign imports $313,000 as compared with $193,000; coastwise importations of native goods, $8 million as compared with $9.1 million; and coastwise exports of Chinese produce $11.5 million as against $6.8 million. Direct imports of refined sugar totalled 8,770 quintals as against 9,724 quintals in the previous year. Of kerosene oil some 6,834,000 litres was shipped from Hankow and Shanghai, of which 5,241,000 litres was for entry into bond and 1,523,000 litres came as duty-paid from Hankow. Reshipments consisted of 4,295,000 litres in bond and 215,000 litres as duty-paid re-export, so that 2,324,000 litres was for consumption in the Ichang district as against a net amount of 3,103,000 litres for local use in 1936. Gasolene arrivals totalled 4,786,950 litres as against 373,700 litres in 1936, and of this amount 4,060,000 litres was reshipped to up-river ports. Coastwise imports from down-river ports declined generally, cotton piece goods being valued for 1937 at $1.3 million only as against $1.7 million for the previous year. The value of domestic exports increased by some 68 per cent to a value of $11.5 million, this being accounted for by increased shipments of wood oil, which totalled 103,862 quintals as compared with 45,863 quintals. Despite the dislocatiin of steamer traffic on the Upper Yangtze in the early months of the year and the withdrawal of Japanese shipping, the total number of vessels entered and cleared was 3,003 with an aggregate tonnage of 1,260,666 tons, a decrease only of 26 vessels and 105,965 tons as compared with 1936. Throughout the December quarter nearly all Chinese vessels were commandeer- ed for military purposes, while the number of foreign vessels on the upper river was greatly reduced, resulting in considerable congestion at the close of the year and an increase of some 25 per cent in the population of the port.