Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 762

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WUCHOW-FU

consists of two or three streets, which round the corner outside the city walls at the junction of the two rivers. The principal would compare favourably with a second rate street in Canton, the others are inferior. The annual inundations which take place here are a peculiar feature of the place. The West River is affected to a very great degree by the rainfall, so much so that the difference between the winter and summer levels of the water is as much as sixty feet. The summer freshets are a great source of inconvenience. When the water rises, sometimes half of the streets and the lower storeys of the houses in them are flooded, the people have to move all their belongings upstairs, communication has to be carried on in boats, and business is seriously interfered with. But the Chinese do not seem to mind the inconvenience much. They have gone on century after century submitting to the same yearly invasion of their dwellings by the water without the slightest attempt to improve matters. They simply

simply suspend business and retire to their upper storeys when the inundations come, wait there till they subside, and then resume work. The foreigners who establish themselves here will hardly be content to take things so easily; they will require houses above high water mark, and in a year or so we may expect to see the city adorned by buildings really suited to the necessities of the place.

a few

The history of Wuchow presents some points of interest. The mythical emperor Shun (2,200 B.C.) while on a tour of inspection of his southern domains, died in the wilds of Ts'ang Wu, and one tradition relates that his grave is to be found in the Great Cloud Mountain, three miles to the east of the city. Of the nine divisions into which the Great Yu (2,250 B.C.) divided the empire, Ching Chow was the region lying between the Tungting Lake and the southern kingdom of Yüeh, the present Annam, and of Ching Chow, Tsang Wu was an important sub-division. When the rule

of the house of the First Emperor, Chin Shih Huang, came to an end in 206 B.C., a certain official known as Chao To took possession of Southern Yüeh and appointed Chao Kuang, prince of Ts'ang Wu, to reside at Kuanghsin,

reside at Kuanghsin, an old town which was situated one mile to the east of the present Wuchow and which no longer exists. In the year 135 B.C. Han Wu Ti despatched one of his generals to conquer Southern Yüeh, who divided it into seven districts, one of which was Ts'ang Wu, and placed all'under the control of an officer known as the Governor of Annai to reside at Kuangshin. In 592 A.D, the present city of Ts'ang Wu or Wuchow was built, and thenceforward became the seat of government. The province of Kwangsi was first defined in the year 1364 by the last of the Sungs. In 1465 the office of Governor-General of the Liang Kwang was instituted by the Ming Emperor Cheng Hua. This officer resided for some sixty years at Ts'ang Wu, and then occasionally went to reside at Shui Hing in Kwangtung, one of the present ports of call on the river, returning as necessity arose to Wuchow. Things stood this way at the commencement of the present dynasty, but in 1665 the seat of provincial government was transferred to Kweilin, and Wuchow reverted to the status of an ordinary prefectural city. In the autumn of 1857 it fell, after a siege of 100 days, into the hands of the Boat Rebels, who, availing themselves of the anarchy caused by the Taipings, appear to have harried this and the neighbouring province for many years. The city was, however, retaken two years later. Since then the course of events in Wuchow has not been marked by anything noteworthy, except the occurrence of a large fire about the middle of the year 1894, which consumed the greater portion of the business quarter of the city. But all the houses destroyed have been rebuilt, and the only trace of the catastrophe is that furnished by the superior look of the new buildings.

As regards trade, Wuchow bids fair to be a place of importance. It is situated at the head of navigation from the sea and just below where the West River and Fuho rapids commence. It is thus of necessity a port of transhipment and, as such, a centre to which business will converge. On reference to the Customs returns it will be seen that a good beginning has been made. The import of foreign goods is already considerable and will continue to increase as new districts are opened up by means of the transit pass. In short the present of Wuchow as a treaty port gives every promise of a prosperous future

The port was opened on the 4th June, 1897. The net value of the trade coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs during 1898 was Tls. 4,221,758.