New Harbin has fine wide streets, not, however, in very good order, and is resplendent with churches and stately buildings, such as the Railway Administration Offices, the residence of the Civil Administration, Colonel Grombtchevsky, of Pamir fame, and the Russian Consulate-General. There are several large schools, attended, I was informed, by 800 Russian children. A fine wide boulevard sweeps through the town, and there are two public gardens. In some of the main streets good shops are met with, but a great part of the town is occupied by small villas standing in well-wooded gardens, the residences of railway employés. I noticed that many houses were unoccupied, and yet new buildings, such as a grand hotel, were still going up. The existing hotels, of which there are several, are poor and tawdry.
The Pristan is the commercial and industrial quarter of Harbin. I have already stated that it lies along the river bank, stretches back to New Harbin, and is bounded on the south and east by the railway to the Sungari Bridge. It is full of shops, in whose windows European articles of every description were displayed. The principal streets were crowded with Russians, men and women, and not a few Chinese. There is a considerable number of Chinese stores. I visited several of these, and was met with the universal complaint of depressed trade due to the withdrawal of the army, on which they practically depended for existence. One large store I found full of the finest Parisian soaps, soap-powders, perfumes, and cosmetics of every description, and, although there was now no demand for these articles, exorbitant and prohibitive prices were still quoted. In another large store there was a great display of Russian coloured cotton prints, which the manager stated were in great demand for the Mongol market, but the shirtings, sheetings, and drills bore the names of well-known Shanghae British merchants, and had found their way through Vladivostock. I also noticed the name of Richard Haworth, of Manchester; and Wright's (American) Health Underwear lay alongside what I was told was a Japanese imitation, and certainly a very inferior article. There are now three mail trains a week running either way between Moscow and Vladivostock. Beans and bean-cake are carried from Harbin to the latter for shipment to Japan, and the lowering of freights along this section of 840 versts is under consideration.
So great was the demand for luxuries during the war that champagne fetched as much as 35 roubles (£3. 10s.) a bottle, and the price of all other luxuries were proportionately high, so that it will be readily understood that much of the money spent by the Russian army and its gay followers found its way to France and other wine-growing and luxury-manufacturing countries. While many have reaped rich harvests during the war, trade in Harbin is now so depressed that Government financial aid is being invoked, and there was a Russian Commissioner from St. Petersburgh on the spot inquiring what steps could be taken to tide over the present troubles; but it seemed to me that depression had not yet reached its low-water mark, and that hard times would become harder, for Harbin is stocked with articles which nobody wants or can afford to buy. All the Government aid in the world will not make unsaleable goods saleable.
I was informed by a trustworthy authority that, with a view to pushing Russian goods in Manchuria, Russian agents had been collecting samples of English and other cotton goods in Harbin, and even in Shanghae, for imitation in Russia, and that the railways had recently reduced freights from Moscow to Harbin and even to K'uan-ch'eng-tzu to the same rates as from Vladivostock to these places; but, as a Russian merchant in China, a fellow-traveller, said to me, "It is no use; Russians are poor business men, they do not try to help themselves, and they will never succeed. One Chinese can do the work of three Russians." In spite of this, however, an imposing building, to be used as a cotton goods exhibition, store, and market, was nearing completion in New Harbin.
Another Russian fellow-traveller, also a merchant in China, would insist on telling me stories at the expense of the business methods of his own countrymen. He said, "I am returning from Vladivostock to Tien-tsin. Some time ago I took a small parcel of samples to the post-office at the former for transmission to the latter place, and I duly paid the postage of 1 r. 6 c. Next day I went to the post-office to inquire when the parcel was likely to reach its destination. The postmaster said he did not know. But,' said I, 'there is weekly steamer communication between Vladivostock and Shanghae, and several times a week between Shanghae and Tien-tsin.' 'That may be,' said the postmaster, 'but parcels do not go that way; they are forwarded by rail to Verkhne-Udinsk and thence overland by way of Kiakhta to Tien-tsin.' I am going to Tien-tsin to await that parcel, which may take a couple of months to reach its destination."
The industries of Harbin are flour-milling, brewing, and vodka distilling. There are eight large roller mills with a milling capacity of 1,440,000 lbs. of flour per day of twenty-four hours. I should have stated that there is one roller mill near the Russian station at Kuan-ch'eng-tzu with a possible daily output of 36,000 lbs. of flour. They were erected for the purpose of supplying the Russian troops in the north during the military occupation, and during the war the Russian army was entirely dependent on them for the staff of life. To-day they are practically idle, their raison d'être has ceased, and their output is limited to local requirements. Several are bankrupt and in the hands of the Russo-Chinese Bank. Here we have an instance of the lack of business qualifications on the part of the Russian, of which I have just been speaking. Large quantities of foreign flour are imported into Manchuria, the whole of which could easily be supplied by these mills, and yet, owing to want of business push, their horizon is limited to the town of Harbin.
The chief wheat belts lie along the Sungari and its tributaries, the Nonui and the Mutan Rivers, and although the grain is inferior in size to the American product, it yields flour which Russian bakers can convert into bread excellent both as to colour and flavour. The supply of wheat is abundant, and much is shipped from Harbin to Blagoveschensk, on the Amur, for Harbin by the Sungari and Amur is in steamer communication with both Blagoveschensk and Khabarovsk.
What I have said regarding the present condition of the Harbin mills applies equally to the three breweries and the Vodka distillery, They are depressed without the same possibility of revival.
Times may be bad, but the Russian must have his pleasures, and there are at least three theatres, a circus, and many other places of entertainment. There is a race-course near old Harbin, and the 14th October, the day of my arrival, was race day.
The population of the Railway Settlement of Harbin is estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000 Russians and from 15,000 to 16,000 Chinese, the latter in the Pristan. The whole of this Settlement is administered at the expense of the railway, which, however, is tiring of the burden, and is agitating for the imposition of taxes for municipal purposes The Settlement is very imperfectly policed by Russians armed with revolvers and swords. The streets in the Pristan, which is low-lying, are in many places simply quagmires impassable for wheeled traffic, and in New Harbin much is needed to place and maintain such a large area in proper condition. Here and there the electric light shone out in the night, but many of the streets were dimly lighted by oil lamps.
About a mile below the Sungari Bridge, and on the same bank of the river as the Pristan, is a Chinese town which, like Harbin, sprang into existence with the advent of the Russians. There is a fairly decent road leading to this town, but the streets are even worse than those of the Pristan, and it says much for the springs of the drosky in which I rode that they returned whole. A capsize and a mud bath a couple of feet deep appeared imminent every moment. This town, like Harbin generally, has lost much of its former glory, and many of the Chinese have gone elsewhere in search of a living. Its population is placed at 40,000, but I think that this estimate is excessive. It is an ordinary Chinese town with shops and street stalls, and many of the houses were vacant. There were numerous opium-smoking dens.
It is proposed to establish the "Shang Fou," or trade mart, on the piece of ground between the railway bridge and the Chinese town, but the exclusive right to the Settlement at Harbin, although delicately hinted at, has not yet been openly claimed by Russia, and the United States' Consul and Japanese Consul-General have established their Consulates in New Harbin. The former strongly urged the expediency of having a British Consul as a colleague, but in reply to my inquiries he confessed that there was not, to his knowledge, a single British subject in the town. Nor was there an American citizen, outside his own family. His aim, as he frankly avowed, was to induce bigger guns to fight the battle of the Settlement, which must sooner or later be waged.
German and Austrian Representatives were said to be coming, and French interests are in the hands of a Consular Agent, an employé of the Russo-Chinese Bank.
The Yokohama Specie Bank is immediately expected. I saw one or two Japanese women on the streets, but the tide of immigration had only begun to flow so far north. It will come. A few singing girls and waiting maids have already penetrated as far as Tsitsihar, the capital of the Hei-lung-chiang Province. The Taotai has taken up his residence in the Pristan. Custom-houses have not yet been...
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New Harbin has fine wide streets, not, however, in very good order, and is resplendent with churches and stately buildings, such as the Railway Administration Offices, the residence of the Civil Administration, Colonel Grombtchevsky, of Pamir fame, and the Russian Consulate-General. There are several large schools, attended, I was informed, by 800 Russian children. A fine wide boulevard sweeps through the town, and there are two public gardens. In some of the main streets good shops are met with, but a great part of the town is occupied by small villas standing in well- wooded gardens, the residences of railway employés. I noticed that many houses were unoccupied, and yet new buildings, such as a grand hotel, were still going up. The existing hotels, of which there are several, are poor and tawdry.
The Pristan is the commercial and industrial quarter of Harbin. I have already stated that it lies along the river bank, stretches back to New Harbin, and is bounded on the south and east by the railway to the Sungari Bridge. It is full of shops, in whose windows European articles of every description were displayed. The principal streets were crowded with Russians, men and women, and not a few Chinese. There is a considerable number of Chinese stores. I visited several of these, and was met with the universal complaint of depressed trade due to the withdrawal of the army, on which they practically depended for existence. One large store I found full of the finest Parisian soaps, soap-powders, perfumes, and cosmetics of every description, and, although there was now no demand for these articles, exorbitant and prohibitive prices were still quoted. In another large store there was a great display of Russian coloured cotton prints, which the manager stated were in great demand for the Mongol market, but the shirtings, sheetings, and drills bore the names of well-known Shanghae British merchants, and had found their way through Vladivostock. I also noticed the name of Richard Haworth, of Manchester; and Wright's (American) Health Underwear lay alongside what I was told was a Japanese imitation, and certainly a very inferior article. There are now three mail trains a week running either way between Moscow and Vladivostock. Beans and bean-cake are carried from Harbin to the latter for shipment to Japan, and the lowering of freights along this section of 840 versts is under consideration.
So great was the demand for luxuries during the war that champagne fotched as much as 35 roubles (37. 10s.) a bottle, and the price of all other luxuries were propor- tionately high, so that it will be readily understood that much of the money spent by the Russian army and its gay followers found its way to France and other wine- growing and luxury-manufacturing countries. While many have reaped rich harvests during the war, trade in Harbin is now so depressed that Government financial aid is being invoked, and there was a Russian Commissioner from St. Petersburgh on the spot inquiring what steps could be taken to tide over the present troubles; but it seemed to me that depression had not yet reached its low-water mark, and that hard times would become harder, for Harbin is stocked with articles which nobody wants or can afford to buy. All the Government aid in the world will not make unsaleable goods saleable.
I was informed by a trustworthy authority that, with a view to pushing Russian goods in Manchuria, Russian agents had been collecting samples of English and other cotton goods in Harbin, and even in Shanghae, for imitation in Russia, and that the railways had recently reduced freights from Moscow to Harbin and even to K'uan- ch'eng-tzu to the same rates as from Vladivostock to these places; but, as a Russian merchant in China, a fellow-traveller, said to me, "It is no use; Russians are poor business mon, they do not try to help themselves, and they will never succeed. One Chinese can do the work of three Russians." In spite of this, however, an imposing building, to be used as a cotton goods exhibition, store, and market, was nearing completion in New Harbin.
Another Russian fellow-traveller, also a merchant in China, would insist on telling me stories at the expense of the business methods of his own countrymen. He said, "I am returning from Vladivostock to Tien-tsin. Some time ago I took a small parcel of samples to the post-office at the former for transmission to the latter place, and I duly paid the postage of 1 r. 6 c. Next day I went to the post-office to inquire when the parcel was likely to reach its destination. The postmaster said he did not know. But,' said I, 'there is weekly steamer communication between Vladivostock and Shanghae, and several times a week between Shanghae and Tien-tsin.' That may be,' said the postmaster, but parcels do not go that way; they are forwarded by rail to Verkhne-Udinsk and thence overland by way of Kiakhta to Tien-tsin.' I am going to Tien-tsin to await that parcel, which may take a couple of months to reach its destination."
15
The industries of Harbin are flour-milling, brewing, and vodka distilling. There are eight large roller mills with a milling capacity of 1,440,000 lbs. of flour per day of twenty-four hours. I should have stated that there is one roller mill near the Russian station at Kuan-ch'eng-tzu with a posible daily output of 36.000 lbs. of flour. They were erected for the purpose of supplying the Russian troops in the north during the military occupation, and during the war the Russian army was entirely dependent on them for the staff of life. To-day they are practically idle, their raison d'être has ceased, and their output is limited to local requirements. Several are bankrupt and in the hauds of the Russo-Chinese Bank. Here we have an instance of the lack of business qualifications on the part of the Russian, of which I have just been speaking. Large quantities of foreign flour are imported into Manchuria, the whole of which could easily be supplied by these mills, and yet, owing to want of business push, their horizon is limited to the town of Harbin.
The chief wheat belts lie along the Sungari and its tributaries, the Nonui and the Mutan Rivers, and although the grain is inferior in size to the American product, it yields flour which Russian bakers can convert into bread excellent both as to colour and flavour. The supply of wheat is abundant, and much is shipped from Harbin to Blagoveschensk, on the Amur, for Harbin by the Sungari and Amur is in steamer communication with both Blagoveschensk and Khabarovsk.
What I have said regarding the present condition of the Harbin mills applies equally to the three breweries and the Vodka distillery, They are depressed without the same possibility of revival.
Times may be bad, but the Russian must have his pleasures, and there are at least three theatres, a círcus, and many other places of entertainment. There is a race-course near old Harbin, and the 14th October, the day of my arrival, was race day.
The population of the Railway Settlement of Harbin is estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000 Russians and from 15,000 to 16,000 Chinese, the latter in the Pristan. The whole of this Settlement is administered at the expense of the railway, which, however, is tiring of the burden, and is agitating for the imposition of taxes for municipal purposes The Settlement is very imperfectly policed by Russians armed with revolvers and swords. The streets in the Pristan, which is low-lying, are in many places simply quagmires impassable for wheeled traffic, and in New Harbin much is needed to place and maintain such a large area in proper condition. Here and there the electric light shone out in the night, but many of the streets were dimly lighted by oil lamps.
About a mile below the Sungari Bridge, and on the same bank of the river as the Pristan, is a Chinese town which, like Harbin, sprang into existence with the advent of the Russians. There is a fairly decent road leading to this town, but the streets are even worse than those of the Pristan, and it says much for the springs of the drosky in which I rode that they returned whole. A capsize and a mud bath a couple of feet deep appeared imminent every moment. This town, like Harbin generally, has lost much of its former glory, and many of the Chinese have gone elsewhere in search of a living. Its population is placed at 40,000, but I think that this estimate is excessive. It is an ordinary Chinese town with shops and street stalls, and many of the houses were vacant. There were numerous opium- smoking dens.
It is proposed to establish the "Shang Fou," or trade mart, on the piece of ground between the railway bridge and the Chinese town, but the exclusive right to the Settlement at Harbin, although delicately binted at, has not yet been openly claimed by Russia, and the United States' Consul and Japanese Consul-General have established their Consulates in New Harbin. The former strongly urged the expediency of having a British Consul as a colleague, but in reply to my inquiries he confessed that there was not, to his knowledge, a single British subject in the the town. Nor was there an American citizen, outside his own family. His aim, as he frankly avowed, was to induce bigger guns to fight the battle of the Settlement, which must sooner or later be waged.
German and Austrian Representatives were said to be coming, and French interests are in the hands of a Consular Agent, an employé of the Russo- Chinese Bank.
The Yokohama Specie Bank is immediately expected. I saw one or two Japanese women on the streets, but the tide of immigration had only begun to flow so far north. It will come. A few singing girls and waiting maids have already penetrated as far as Tsitsihar, the capital of the Hei-lung-chiang Province. The Taotai has taken up his residence in the Pristan. Custom-houses have not yet been
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