Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 123

1842.

Topography of Chekrang

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The city of Hangchau, the capital of the province, is of an oblong form, its length from north to south being one third more than its breadth from east to west. It is surrounded by a high wall, having on the north two gates; on the east, four; on the south, one; on the west, three-or, according to some maps, three on the east and two on the south. When visited by Macartney's embassy in 1793, its population was 'immense,' scarcely inferior to that of Peking, and the number of inhabitants in the suburbs, with those constantly resid- ing on the water, were considered as nearly equal to those within the walls. The houses were low, none exceeding two stories; the streets were narrow, paved with large smooth flags in the middle, and with small smooth stones on each side. Ilángchau is famed for its trade in silk; and its shops and warehouses, in point of size and stock of goods contained in them, might, says Barrow, vie with the best in London: "in every shop were exposed to view silk and different ma- nufactures, dyed cottons and Nankeens, a great variety of English broadcloths, chiefly however blue and scarlet, used for winter cloaks, for chair-covers and for carpets; and also a quantity of peltry, in- tended for the northern markets. The rest of the houses, in the public streets through which we passed, consisted of butchers' and bakers' shops, fishmongers, dealers in rice and other grain, ivory-cut- ters, dealers in lacquered ware, tea-houses, cooks' shops, and coffin- makers."

Hángchau is situated on a plain, and distant perhaps two miles from the northern bank of the river Tsienting, which falls into the sea forty or fifty miles to the eastward. The river opposite the city is about four miles wide, at high water; but the ebb leaves a fine level strand about two miles broad, extending eastward as far as the eye can see. Barrow says this part of the river might probably be called an estuary, 'the tide falling six or seven feet, at the place of embar- kation.' In the northern suburbs is situated an irregular basin, which forms the southern extreme of the Grand canal, and is suppli- ed with water from the lake on the west of the city. A copious stream from this lake also fills the channel round the walls, in which are turned several small arches for the small canals to enter the city. Staunton says (in his Embassy, vol. H., page 439), "between the river and the basin of the Grand canal, there is no water communication; all merchandize, therefore, brought by sea into the river from the southward, as well as whatever comes from the lakes and rivers of Chekiáng and Fukien, must be landed at this city, in their way to The northward :-a circumstance which renders Hangchau the gene

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