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Fa-ku-men and Tiehling, the answers being that many of the carts which carried bean-cake to Tiehling in winter returned empty.
The distance from Fa-ku-men to Tiehling is given by the Chinese as 90 li, and may be estimated at approximately 28 miles. On leaving Fa-ku-men the road soon enters the hills to the east, and after a gentle rise descends into a narrow valley bounded by low, grass-topped hills partly cultivated. At 10 miles from Fa-ku-men the valley ends, the hills on the south side retiring in a south by east direction, and giving place to an undulating country over which the road passes eastwards. The village of Tiao-ping-shan marks the eastern end of the valley. The country is more broken than between Hsin-min Fu and Fa-ku-men, and several nullahs with ruined bridges had to be negotiated. The crops were the same, but upland rice was more in evidence. There are twelve hamlets and villages on the road, some of them such as Yung-an-p'u and Wu-chia-hsin, being of considerable size, and we struck the river, about 400 yards in breadth, at the ferry of Shung-ch'a-k'ou in a sandy cove under a low rocky bluff rising sheer from the river. There was only one long, broad, flat. ferry boat, which had just started when we arrived, and night was falling bef orwe- were poled and yuhloed to the further bank.
As we waiting at the ferry and the animals in our carts were being unyoked preparatory to boarding the boat, several hean junks, each with sail up and crew of three men straining at the oars, passed down river under the right bank, where the water was from 10 to 12 feet deep. Owing to the late rains of the present year there were no shallows at the bifurcation of the Liao just above Tiehling, and the junks were taking advantage of the swollen river to hurry on to Newchwang. It was dark before we reached a Chinese inn within the city walls of Tichling; but, with the assistance of the landlord, I succeeded in having an interview with several merchants, who fully corroborated all that I had heard at Fa-ku-men, that the import trade of Tiehling and Hsin-min Fu from Fa-ku-men in winter depends largely on the market at the two places, that the trade with Hsin-min Fu is always greater in volume, and that the imports into Fa-kn-men from Tiehling are inconsiderable. At Hsin-min Fu and Fa-ku-men there was little evidence of Japanese activity, only a few small shops being observable; but at Tiebling it is otherwise. Two roads leading from the railway station or rather from the eastern boundary of the railway reserve to the west gate of Tiehling were almost entirely given up to small Japanese shops, but within the railway reserve itself there were many red brick houses, while similar and One large grey more pretentious two-storied buildings were in course of erection. brick two-storied building with a central square and two side wings particularly attracted my attention. It was standing in ample grounds surrounded by a low wall with iron railings. Over the doorway in Chinese characters was the inscription "Commercial Exhibition." A poster at the door read "No Admittance" ; but as the door was open no objection was raised to my entrance. The central square contained a large entrance hall on the ground floor with a staircase leading to the first floor. The exhibition consisted of four long, broad rooms fitted with glass-fronted show In one or two cases arranged along the walls and along the centre of each room, rooms the exhibits, of every conceivable character and all of Japanese manufacture, were already arranged to please the eye, while in the others men and women were unpacking cases and spreading out their goods. The exhibits were many of them pure Japanese in type, but I could not help noticing that many were imitations of foreign goods, and in a quiet corner I took the opportunity of committing to my note- book the following labels on sundry bottles:-
"Worcestershire Sauce,
prepared and sold by
Barishiu and Co., London, N."
"Fine Old Highland Whisky, Malcolm, Barcelona, and Co., London and Glasgow."
(Priced 1 yen.)
"The Mon Old Scotch Whisky,
bottled and guaracted by
B. B. Woompang.
By special appointment purveyor of whisky to
A. F. W. the Prince of Wales."
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"Scotch Whisky,
A. F. Wine and Co., Japan." (Lion holding Axe, trade-mark.)
"Vieux Cognae,
L. D. Piccardo, Geneva." (Priced 135 yen.)
A few hundred yards to the south-west of the T'ichling railway station there is a Japanese flour-mill, belonging to the Manchurian Flour-Mill Company, which commenced work in June, and is reported to be turning out 1,200 50-lb. sacks of flour per day from local wheat. The flour, which is made in four qualities, is said to be 20 sen cheaper in each grade per sack than flour made in Japan, and the Company propose to erect similar mills at Newchwang, Mukden, and Antung.
I left Tiebling on the afternoon of the 28th September and reached Mukden the same evening, travelling in one of the new American second class carriages fitted The workmanship of the car was temporarily with red plush seats as a first class car. somewhat rough in appearance, but the running was perfectly smooth. The young conductor was exceedingly civil and obliging.
I remained at Mukden over the next day and called at "Government House," the Governor-General's offices built in foreign style inside the city, over which the Chinese flag was flying. The Governor-General's residence, also in foreign style, is in course of crection next to "Government House"; but the most imposing foreign building I noticed lies between the city and the railway station where the British- American Tobacco Company have put up an enormous factory for the manufacture of cigarettes. Its completion was expected towards the end of October.
Next morning I left Mukden for Peking joining the train of the Imperial Railways of North China at the South Manchurian railway station, the actual joining of the two lines being at present under discussion at Dairen (Dalny), The Chinese railway station, where the tickets are sold, is 2,000 yards distant from the Japanese station. When the new Japanese station is completed twelve months hence they will be 2,500 to 2,000 yards apart.
The last girder of the twenty-span bridge now in course of construction across the Liao between Mukden and Hsin-min Fu will be placed in position in November. The chief central spans are 40 feet above high-water mark--much higher than the old bridge built by the Japanese still in use; but they are not sufficiently high to admit of the passage of junks without unshipping or lowering their masts.
The Chief Traffic Inspector of the Chinese railways outside the wall (i.e., north of Shan-hai-kuan), who travelled in the same train from Mukden to Kou-pang-tzu, the junction of the Hsin-min Fu and Newchwang lines, where he resides, informed me that duty-free goods (such as flour) arriving from a port are no longer taxed at Kou-pang-tzu, which was his complaint to me when I last visited Manchuria. He said, however, that many imports still come forward unaccompanied by exemption certificates and are duly taxed. This is, of course, in accordance with the Customs Regulations for Manchuria which came into force last year, and it is a curious fact that merchants at Hsin-min Fu and Fn-ku-men whom I met had never heard of the issue of such certificates and were incredulous of my statement that they are obtainable from the Customs if applied for in due form; and they appeared still more incredulous of my statement that a Chinese custom-house was established at Dairen on the 1st July, 1907, being under the impression that goods passing through that port are still duty free.
The traffic on the Chinese Railway is undoubtedly heavily handicapped by the presence of li-kin or other tax stations along their lines where all exports and uncertifi- cated goods are taxed. Such tax stations are not permitted on the South Manchurian Railway, and when the Imperial Railways of North China have endeavoured to compete by lowering freights the taxes have been proportionately raised, the profits going to the tax stations, and not to the railway. Under these circumstances, the railway has given up in despair the attempt to compete by lowering rates.
The conclusion at which I have arrived after visiting Hsin-min-t'un (Hsin-min Fu), Fa-ku-men (Fu-min Ting), and Tiehling, is that Fa-ku-men is much more intimately connected commercially with Hsin-min-t'un than with Tiebling, and that an extension of the Imperial Railways of North China from Hsin-min-t'un to Fa-ku- inon would serve a rich agricultural area and its hinterland, which has at present only a very limited connection with the South Manchurian Railway whether at Tickling or any other station to the north or south of it.
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