Directory_and_Chronicle_1877 — Page 822

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CHINA AND ITS OPEN PORTS.

Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, North German Confederation, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, United States, Great Britain.

CHINKIANG.

The port of Chinkiang (or Chên-kiang-fu), which was declared open to foreign trade by the Treaty of Tientsin, is situated about 150 miles from the Yangtsze at the point where the Grand Canal enters the river.

The history of Chinkiang possesses but few features of interest. The position of the town, as a translation of its name implies ("River Guard"), was at one time of considerable importance from a military point of view, when all the rice-tribute from the south of China was transported to Peking by the interior route. The British forces captured the place in July, 1842, and as the cutting off of supplies always produces a powerful effect, the commanding situation thus secured was not long in pro- ducing the desired result upon the Central Government, for the Treaty of Nanking was signed a mouth afterwards. The Taiping rebels entered the town in.April, 1853, and continued to occupy it till 1857, when they had to yield to the same cause which bad made the government yield ten years before.

The city lies between one of the mouths of the Grand Canal, and the right bank of the Yangtsze. Most of the houses are built on level ground, but the hills surrounding lend a pleasant appearance to the locality, which is enhanced considerably by the bluff scenery of the island of Ts'io-shan. When the city was abandoned by the rebel forces, its destruction was very nearly complete, and it still retains to a considerable extent its desolate aspect. The foreign settlement occupies a tract of land extending from the mouth of the Canal along the bank of the river.

Considerable commercial importance was attached to the port when it was first opened. The largest vessels can approach it, and hopes were high as to the position it would occupy in the development of inland trade with China. But like the hopes entertained respecting several of the other Chinese ports they have proved delusive, and the trade on the Yangtsze seems to have centred at Hankow, farther up the river. The net importation of Opium into Chinkiang in 1875 was 11,758 piculs, against 10,964 piculs in 1874. The import of this drug has steadily increased during the past eight years. The total annual revenue of the port for 1875 amounted to Tls. 158,036, and in 1874 it was Tls. 153,481. The population of Chinkiang is estimated at 130,000

KIUKIANG.

Kiukiang is situated on the Yangtaze, near the outlet of the Poyang Lake, and is a prefectural city of the Province of Kiang-si. It is about 137 geographical miles from Hankow, and 445 from Shanghai.

Kiukiang was at one time a busy and populous city. But it was occupied by the Taiping rebels in 1853, and before it was given up to the Imperial troops it was utterly destroyed, presenting one of those melancholy spectacles which these hordes of usurpers left so often behind them. A gentleman (Mr. Laurence Oliphant) who visited it in 1858 speaks of the desolation of the city in the following terms :-"We found it to the last degree deplorable. A single dilapidated street, composed only of a few mean shops, was all that existed of this once thriving and populous city; the remainder of the vast area comprised within its walls, five or six miles in circumference, contained nothing but ruins, weeds, and kitchen gardens.' When the foreign settle- ment was established there, however, the population soon returned, and it has con- tinued to increase rapidly. It is now estimated at 40,000.

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The city is built close to the river, the walls running along the banks of it for some 500 yards. Their circumference is about five miles, but a considerable portion of the space enclosed is not occupied. The city contains no features of interest. There are several large lakes to the north and west of it, and beyond the principal suburb lies the foreign settlement. On the opening of the port considerable trouble was experienced in securing the land on which to build the foreign residences, the Chinese demanding extortionate prices for it. Indeed so bitter was the opposition