Directory_and_Chronicle_1877 — Page 819

CHINA AND ITS OPEN PORTS.

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ground, opposite the island of Chung-chow. Communication is kept up between it and the city by means of a bridge.

The climate of Foochow is rather warmer in summer and cooler in winter than Hongkong. Frost and ice are occasionally-but very seldom-met with here; and it is recorded that in the month of February, 1864, some two inches of snow fell upon the surrounding hills. Such an occurrence bad not been remembered for forty years before, and it certainly has not happened since.

The scenery surrounding Foochow is very beautiful. In sailing up the river from the sea, a distance of about seven or eight miles, vessels have to leave the wide stream and enter what is called the Kinpai Pass, which is arely half a mile across, and enclosed as it is by bold, rocky walls, it has a very striking appearance. The Pass of Min-ngan is still narrower, and with its towering cliffs, surmounted with fortifications and cultivated terraces, is very picturesque, and has been compared to some of the scenes on the Rhine.

Foreign vessels, with the exception of those of very light draught, are compelled to anchor at Pagoda Island, owing to the shallowness of the river, which has been increasing of late years, and the difficulties of navigation.

The trade of Foochow is mainly in Tea, the quautity exported in 1875, amounting to 1,118,261 piculs. Of Opium, 4,014 piculs net were imported in 1875 as against 3,176 picule in 1874. The total revenue of the port for 1875 was Tls. 1,978,112; for 1874, it was Tls. 1,886,272. The population of Foochow is estimated at 600,000.

NINGPO.

Ningpo is situated on the river Yung, in the province of Chekiang, in lat. 29 d. g. 55 min. 12 sec. N., and long. 121 deg. 22 min. E. It was one of the five ports thrown open to foreigners in 1842.

Foreigners had, however, visited Ningpo at an early date. Portuguese traded there in 1522; a number of them settled in the place in that and succceding years, and there was every prospect of a rising and successful colony soon being established. But the lawless acts of the Portuguese at this as well as at other ports in China soon attracted the attention of the government, and in 1542 the Governor of Chekiang ordered the settlement to be destroyed and the population to be exterminated. A large force of Chinese troops soon besieged the place, destroying it entirely, and out of a population of 1,200 Portuguese, 800 were massacred. No further attempt at trade with this port was made till towards the close of the 17th century, when the East India Company established a factory at the island of Chusan, some forty miles from Ningpo. The attempt to found a trade mart there, however, proved unsatis- factory, and the factory was abandoned after a very few years' trial. The port was deserted by foreigners for many years after that. When hostilities broke out between Great Britain and China in 1839, the fleet moved north from Canton, and on the 13th October, 1841, occupied Ningpo, and an English garrison was stationed there for some time. In March, 1842, an at empt was made by the Chinese to retake the city, but the British artillery repulsed them with great slaughter. Ningpo was evacuated on May 7th, and, on the proclamation of peace in the following August, the port was thrown open to foreign trade.

Ningpo is built on a plain, which stretches away to a considerable distance on either side. It is a walled city, the walls enclosing a space of some five miles in cir- cumference. The walls are built of brick, and are about twenty-five feet high. They are fifteen feet wide at the summit, and twenty-two at the base. Access is obtained to the town by six gates. A large moat commences at the north gate and runs along the foot of the wall for about three miles on the landward side, until it stops at what is called the bridge gate. The main street runs from east to west. One of the peculiarities of the place is a number of walls built across various portions of the city, for the purpose of preventing the spread of fires. Several of the streets are spanned by arches erected in memory of distinguished natives. Ningpo has been celebrated as possessing the fourth library of Chinese works in point of numbers,