Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 717

濟頁

Liang-che

HANKOW-YOCHOW

VAN DER STEGEN & Co., Merchants and

Commission Agents

L. Van der Stegen (Shanghai)

E. Rosseau, signs per pro.

房藥大氏臣屈

WATSON & CO., A. S., LD., "The Hongkong

243

Aerated Waters Makers, Wine, Spirit and

Cigar Merchants

J. L. Geo. Laub, manager

Koong-sin

WELCH, LEWIS & Co., Merchants

泰謙 Kin-tai

Dispensary," Chemists and Druggists, | WHITE WM., Tea Inspector

YOCHOW

Yochow, with a population of 15,000 to 20,000, is situated in latitude 29°23′ N., and longitude 113° 8' E. (Greenwich), at the outlet of the Tungting Lake. Past it ebbs and Lows practically the whole of the trade of Hunan, which, however, adds nothing to the prosperity of the place, as it simply passes by after having paid its inward and outward taxes. The city is the gateway of the province and nothing more.

The province of Hunan has been to foreign commerce what Tibetis to the explorer- 2 Forbidden Land—and its importance has loomed up to the mind with all the charm of the unknown. Its people, too, have had a reputation for savage ferocity beyond all other Chinese. The people are certainly independent, and are anti-foreign with all the feeling caused by the undoubted valour of the myriads of soldiers they have supplied to the Empire during the last forty years, and by the dense ignorance created by their haughty seclusion; but a recent traveller in Hunan, a missionary of over thirty years' experience, has returned deeply impressed with their manly and self- respecting character, and other missionaries hold the same opinion. They are intensely patriotic, but their patriotism is rather for Hunan than for the Empire at large.

The province is rich in many forms of wealth, though the inhabitants say, with a proudly humble depreciation, that it consists of "three parts mountain, six water, and one arable soil." One of the main staples is rice, of which nearly a million piculs are sent out of the province, to Hupeh and Kueichow, in an average year. The Hunan tea sent to Hankow amounts to about six hundred thousand half-chests a year. The timber passing down past Changteh is valued officially at six million taels a year, and is probably worth more. There is also a large production of cotton. The mountain districts contain large fields of coal, both anthracite and bituminous; iron also is known to exist. Sulphur, antimony, nickel, and other minerals are even now exported, and great possibilities of development are undoubtedly to be found.

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The local trade of the city of Yochow is of no great importance, and it is not likely that there will be much development even after the port has been opened to foreign resi- dence. It is as the gateway of Hunan that the place will obtain any importance the point at which transhipment must take place from the steamers plying to and from Hankow, to the junks or other light-draught craft carrying the goods to the true commercial centres of Hunan, viz., Changsha and Siangtan on the Siang River, and Changtehon the Yuen River, both rivers emptying into the Tungting. Lake. The population of these cities cannot be ascertained, but travellers report that each extends for about five miles along the river bank. Above Yochow the navigation presents no difficulties except those arising from shallow water. The so-called Tungting Lake-a lake in summer, but rather a system of wide, shallow, meandering channels separated by vast alluvial flats in winter --is utilised for navigation only along its Eastern edge on the direct line from Yochow to the mouth of the Siang. The bar of this river has from three to four feet of water at the low-water stage, while that of the Yuen is said to have less than three feet; the latter is generally entered by junks through the winding channels of the delta of the Siang, the direct approach across the lake being neglected, probably because with an unfavourable wind the junks now engaged in the traffic must have a bank from which to track, but possibly also because it may not be easy to find the channel. Steam launches now ply from Yochow to Changsha, but take passengers only, no attempt having been yet made to tow cargo-carrying boats.

The city of Yochow is perched on a bluff in a very picturesque way. Its site is, however, not adapted for a transit trade, and it offers no shelter for small craft. The port has, therefore, been opened at Chenglin, five miles to the north and only a mile from the Yangtsze, where a small creek provides the needed shelter for cargo-boats,