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PEI-TAI-HO
Pei-Tai-Ho at present is accessible only by rail from Peking, Tientsin and Taku, but the current year will also see it in railway communication with Newchwang. The railway station lies from four to six miles from the various settlements, and the journey is made by chair, donkey, or walking. Carriages cannot be used, as the roads are like those which General Wade superseded in the Scottish Highlands. There are six miles of beach of every possible variety, and the bathing is excellent from the middle of May to the first of October. The country rises at once from the shore to undulating uplands; most of the houses are at an elevation of fifty or a hundred feet above sea level. At the west end the country is diversified by the Lotus Hills, a series of granite rocks which come close to the sea, and are an off-shoot from the Pettah Hill twelve miles inland. The Lotus peaks rise to about 400 feet. The soil is chiefly a sand formed by disintegrated granite; it is very dry, fertile and non-malarial. The water is excellent, but it is feared that the large access of foreigners and their careless Chinese servants may issue in well-contamination if precautions are not promptly taken. In 1896 there were about twenty tenements, in 1899 about one hundred; last summer the population was slightly over four hundred, chiefly from Tientsin, Peking and the mission stations of Chih-li. There are three major and two minor settlements; West Shore, Rocky Point and East Cliff being the designatories of the former. Most of the Tientsin and Peking laymen are at West Shore; it has the advantage of proximity to the Lotus Hills and the Station, and has more pleasing scenery near at hand. Its demerits are a somewhat tame beach-nothing but sand-and inferior bathing. The latter is due to stinging medusa or jelly fish, and to the nearness of the River Tai which often discolours the water. Both demerits have however been exaggerated The missionaries are chiefly at Rocky Point; there they have an Association which regulates their land tenure, sanita- tion, Sunday observance, etc. A strong body of laymen has now settled to the west of this 'Association' settlement, attracted by the central position, better beach and bathing. The East Cliff was originally a mission investment, but is now a general settlement; it is furthest away from the station and has inferior bathing (one place excepted) but on the other hand it has magnificent land and sea-scapes and faces due East, unlike the other settlements which have a Southern aspect. The rains are heavy in July and early August, but the sandy soil enables one to be out of doors at once after heavy rain. The temperature varies from 4° to 10° below that of Peking and Tientsin in the height of summer; there are no hot winds, as the prevailing breeze is nearly south and is sea-borne.
The following list gives the proprietors or renters in 1899.
WEST SHORE
Batoujeff, M. D. Bellingham, A. W. H.
Hanneken, C. von
Hart, Sir Robert, K.C.M.G.
Hippisley, A.
Boyce Kup, J.
Heyl, E.
Brazier, J.
Buchheister, O.
Irwin, Dr. A.
Cox, A.
Kinder, C.
Detring, G.
Drummond, J. I. M.
Forbes, W. H.
Osborne, J.
Oswald, R.
Giers, H.E. Baron de
Platounoff, W. A.
Forbes, W. A.
Knobel. F. M.
Marshall, Dr. F. W.
Schomberg, A. de C. Schousky, N. Schroeter, H. Startseff, A. D. Stepharius, C. Stewart, Jas. Tenner, C. von Tuckey, S. W. Walker, H. W. Walte, A.
Woronoff, Colonel
TEMPLE
HILL
(Midway between West Shore and Rocky Point)
Anderson, W. C. C.
Anglican Mission Chang Yen Mow Candlin, Rev. G. Cousins, Edm.
Fenton, J.
Hatch, J. N.
Rocher, Mme. L. Smith, Henry Southcott, W. E.
Springaard, Mon. Summers, H. Thomson, J. C. Way, W. T. B.
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