MUKDEN
Feny-t'ien
(Mukden is the Manchu Name)
(JAPANESE: HŌTEN)
Mukden, is the capital of the province of Fêng-t'ien. It was the ancient seat of the last dynasty of China. Though nominally opened to international residence and trade by the Commercial Treaties concluded by the United States and Japan with China in 1903, it was not really opened until 1906, for in the Russo-Japanese war the city became one of the strongholds of the Russian forces, from. which, however, they were eventually driven by the advancing Japanese army after one of the most decisive battles of those times. When peace was concluded and the troops were withdrawn the trade possibilities of the province began to receive increased attention. The principal trade of Mukden has been in grain, such as beans and millet; there is, also, a considerable trade in skins, furs and bristles. The chief imports are Japanese and European textiles, hardware, cigarettes, sugar and kerosene oil. Since 1932 the Japanese have started many industries, among which may be mentioned the manufacture of machines, machine tools, paints, dyes, pencils, sauces, beer, confectionery, leather goods and cotton spinning. The Chi Tung Tobacco Co. and the Toa Tobacco Co. maintained cigarette factories in the International Settlement. Minerals and metals are mined and smelted in the neighbourhood of Mukden. Rice farming, also, is on the increase, there being some 10,000 acres under cultivation in the Mukden and Sinmin districts, Other crops grown in the neighbourhood are cotton, niillet, Kaoliang and groundnut.
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Mukden is situated in slightly undulating country a few miles north of the Hunho, a tributary of the river Liao, about 250 miles north of Dairen, and is the junction for lines radiating to Dairen, Shanhaik wan, Harbin and Antung. The Chinese city stands four square, each side being 2,334 li long but it is not absolutely north and south. It is walled. The inner town, which is nearly a mile square, is protected by a stone wall 35 feet high and 15 feet wide on the top, pierced by eight gates, two on each side, which formerly had high towers above them, but only the one over the "Little West Gate" now remains, and the inner face of the wall is greatly dilapidated. A smaller wall encloses the ancient palace, which stands in the centre of the inner city, like the palace at Peiping. There are four main streets, which cross east and west, north and south, from gate to gate. Adjoining the station of the South Manchuria, Railway is the former Japanese Railway Settlement which was taken over from the Russians after the war. total area of this Settlement was over 2,000 acres, and it has been developed of late years into a town of spacious squares and wide streets. East of the Japanese Settlement is the Settlement formerly set aside for the foreign residential and business quarter. Throughout the city a great deal of building has been going on during recent years and the main roads have been macadamized. Actually miles of new houses-good-looking red-brick structures-are springing up, and the Railway Settlement is now linked up with the Chinese business quarter. The North Eastern University, occupying a site to the south-east of the Imperial North Tomb was completed and opened in 1926 but has remained closed since the 1931 incident. Important shop and banks are situated both in the Japanese Rail- way Settlement and between that Settlement and the walled city. The streets and shops are lighted by electricity, the use of which has spread with remarkable rapidity. The Mukden Electric Light Works completed in 1930 the installation of a new 2,500 k.w. plant, which practically doubled its capacity and further additions have since been made. On December 1st, 1920, a long-distance Japanese telephone service was inaugurated between Mukden, Antung and Hsinking and there is now a service between Mukden and Peiping, Mukden and Harbin and Mukden and Tokyo. Air services are maintained with other parts of the country and are connected services to Japan. The estimated total population in October, 1939 was approximately 1,300,000.