The construction of the Sunning Railway has been progressing, though the final alignment beyond Kung Yik has yet to be determined. The General Superintendent states that this work is about to commence. Bridges on the Kung Yik-Sunning section are complete but are more rudimentary compared to those on the Hankow line, where supports and piers are made of solid concrete.
The Sunning section has been operational for about three months, with daily receipts amounting to approximately $300. While this is insufficient to make the line profitable, the management anticipates that the completion of the towns of Kung Yik and Sam Kap, and the extension of the line to Sam Kap, will significantly improve financial prospects.
There is a noticeable emphasis on aesthetics in the design of the first-class carriages and the Company’s offices at Kung Yik and Sunning. The office in Sunning is a substantial three-storey building, primarily accommodating Company clerks, which seems disproportionate to the line's current scale and prospects. The General Superintendent, Chin Poo, a Chinese man aged around 70 with 48 years of experience in the United States, oversees a large staff that appears to have limited work, indicating some slackness in management.
Beyond Sunning, the line is managed by two Chinese engineers educated in America. Rails have been laid for about 9 miles, with a significant detour to avoid cultivated land. A bridge over a major stream near Sunning is under construction, though bridges and culverts beyond this point remain unstarted, with gaps in the embankment. The line will not open until it reaches Sam Kap.
Sam Kap, currently a marshland, is slated for development into a town with steamers connecting to Macao and Hong Kong. However, the prospects of Sam Kap becoming a major port are questionable. While it is the only feasible harbour along a considerable stretch of coast, with 6 feet of water at low tide and potential for dredging, it is exposed to typhoons and gales, making it unsuitable for ocean steamers.
The railway's profitability is likely to depend on passenger traffic and goods transport between Sunning and other regions rather than Sam Kap becoming a major port. The line is not expected to be an extraordinary financial success.
Nevertheless, the achievement of the Sunning people in raising $3,000,000 gold, largely from Chinese in the United States, to construct the railway, drain marshlands, and establish new towns is remarkable. It demonstrates their patriotism and progressiveness and may inspire similar initiatives elsewhere in China.
The Company plans to build a railway from Tam Shou Hau to Kongmoon via Sanui upon completing the Sunning line, with a ferry connecting to Kung Yik. This line, passing through populated areas with minimal need for major bridges, is expected to be profitable.
A printed map of the Sunning Railway and a tracing of the proposed Kongmoon line are enclosed.
Canton, April 21, 1908.
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has yet been laid down, but the General Superintendent states that this work is just about to be started. Bridges on the Kung Yik-Sunning section are complete, but are only roughly built compared with those on the Hankow line, where the supports and piers of the bridges are all of solid concrete.
The Sunning section has been open for about three months, and receipts amount to some 300 dollars a-day. This is not enough to make the line pay, and the management are hoping that the completion of the towns of Kung Yik and Sam Kap and the opening of the line through to the latter place will make a considerable difference.
A certain striving after effect is visible in the style of first-class carriage chosen, and more particularly in the offices which the Company has built for itself at Kung Yik and Suuming. At the latter place there is a big three-storeyed building, the principal function of which at present seems to be the accommodation of clerks in the Company's employ; there is a curious disproportion between its size and the extent, importance, and financial prospects of the line. The General Superintendent is a Chinese named Chin Poo, a man of about 70, who says that he has spent forty-eight years of his life in the United States. He has a large staff under him who seem to have but little work to do, and generally there seems to be considerable slackness in the manage- ment of the line.
Beyond Sunning the line is under the charge of two Chinese engineers educated in America. Rails have been laid for about 9 miles, but here again there is an immense bend, the railway following the foot of the hills so as to avoid, as far as possible, the necessity of buying cultivated land. A bridge over the principal stream which runs through Sunning is now in process of construction about 7 miles from Sunning, and from this point on to Sam Kap-about 10 miles-neither bridges nor culverts have been commenced, gaps being left in the embankment, which is complete to the latter place.
It is not intended to open the line until rails are laid right through to Sam Kap. At the latter place, now simply a mile broad marsh without a single house, a town will be built up, and steamers will be run to Macao and Hong Kong.
sea.
As regards the prospects of the line, one cannot help feeling that its promoters have laid far too much stress on the possibility of making Sam Kap into a great port. The utmost that can be said for Sam Kap is that it is the only possible place for a harbour along many miles of coast, where at low water mud banks extend for miles out into the A stream enters the sea at this point, up which steamers drawing some 5 feet are in the habit of ascending for 5 miles above Sam Kap. Everywhere else within at least 20 miles such a ship has to wait about a mile off the shore and receive passengers from a small open boat, while goods--kerosene, flour, rice, &c.---have to be landed by the same means. At Sam Kap, however, even at low water spring tides there are some 6 feet of water, so that it is quite conceivable that, with a certain amount of dredging, a suitable harbour may be made for vessels like the Hong Kong-Canton steamers, which draw about 8 feet. The railway promoters expect, apparently, much more than this; they think they will succeed in making Sam Kap a port to which ocean steamers will resort. It is, however, even without a technical knowledge of the sea, safe to say that such ships would never anchor in such a place at any time of year when typhoons or even heavy gales are likely to occur. Outside Sam Kap is a stretch of what is prac- tically open sea, some 20 miles from east to west and twelve from north to south, with absolutely no protection from the east. Whether the railway Company will make a profit depends, it seems likely, not so much on their success in making Sam Kap into a great port as on the number of passengers who ordinarily travel between Sunning and the outside world, and on the quantity of goods ordinarily imported into and exported from that district. The railway will carry all these, but it is unlikely that their number or quantity will be increased thereby to any great extent.
The
To sum up, the line is not likely to be an extraordinary financial success. fact, however, that the inhabitants of a single Chinese district have raised a capital of 3,000,000 dollars gold (two-thirds from among Chinese in the United States), and that with this they are draining and filling in marsh lands, calling new towns into existence, and, without having the power to compel any one to sell the land which they required, have actually opened to traffic 17 miles of line, is in itself a remarkable feat; it shows the patriotism and progressiveness of the Sunning people; and one can only hope that the successful construction of the line will act as an incentive to people in other parts of China, leading them to throw over their prejudices, and either build railways them- selves or allow foreigners to build them for them.
The Company have another scheme which they propose to carry out on the com- pletion of their Sunning line, viz., a railway from Tam Shou Hau, opposite Kung Yik, to Kongmoon via Sanui, with a ferry at the former terminus to connect with the Sunning line. As Kongmoon, Sanui and Tam Shou are all good-sized places, this line in itself ought to pay well; it lies through easy country where no big bridges are necessary.
A printed map of the Sunning Railway is inclosed herewith, and a tracing of a map showing where the proposed Kongmoon line is to run.*
Canton, April 21, 1908.
* Maps not reproduced.
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