Directory_and_Chronicle_1901 — Page 606

PEI-TAI-HO--NEWCHWANG

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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.

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[Editorial Note, January 1st, 1901. We have allowed the above description to stand; but as a matter of fact, the Pei-Tai-Ho settlements were wholly and utterly des- troyed about 20th June, 1900. Some thirty or forty foreign visitors who were in residence when the Boxer cyclone burst were taken off by the boats of H. M. S. Humber, and conveyed to Chefoo in June; immediately after which the natives joined a small party of soldiers in first looting and then burning every house in the place. The natives carried off every scrap of the building material that was portable; even the bricks and dressed stone, and in some cases they actually dug up the foundations. Their action was due to greed and not to anti-foreign malice-as a matter of fact, they had always been on good terms with their foreign neighbours, to whose presence they entirely owed their recent prosperity. The I-Ho-Chuan or Boxer sect is not known to have had any following in the district. The people simply believed the foreigners were to be exter- minated, and would never return; and in this belief resolved to resume possession of their lands and as much else as was possible.]

NEWCHWANG

莊牛 Niu-cwang 子營 Ying-tsz

Newchwang is the most northerly port in China open to foreign trade. It is situated in the province of Shing-king, in Manchuria. It is called by the natives Ying-tz, and lies about thirteen miles from the mouth of the river Liao, which falls into the Gulf of Liao-tung, a continuation of the Gulf of Pechili.

Before the port was opened, comparatively little was known of this part of the Central Kingdoin. Manchuria has since, however, been largely colonised by the Chinese, who now outnumber the natives. The word Ying-tz means military station, and that was the only use formerly made of the port. Between the years 1858 and 1860, the British fleet assembled in Ta-lien-wan Bay, and early in 1861 the foreign settlement was established. The town of Newchwang itself is distant from Ying-tz about thirty miles, and is a sparsely populated and uninteresting place, but the construction of the railways is rapidly increasing its importance. At the end of 1899 the Eastern Chinese Railway line (Russian) between Port Arthur, Dalny (Talienwan), and the junction at Ta-shih- chias, whence a branch runs to this port, was completed as far as Moukden and the Imperial Chinese Railway line from Tientsin to Yingkow was practically accomplished. Systematic attack has also at last been made upon the mineral resources of Man- churia, the Eastern Chinese Railway having opened coal mines at Mo-ch'i-shan and T2'uêrh-shan near Liao-yang, and at Wa-fung-tien in the south of the Liaotung peninsula. The railway line runs close to these valuable properties. An unprecedented expansion in trade has accompanied these developments, showing an increase of 49

per cent. over 1898.

The country about the port of Newchwang is bare and desolate, and in sailing up the river a most cheerless prospect greets the traveller's eye. Ying-tz is surrounded by dreary marshes, and the land under cultivation produces principally beans. The river is closed by ice for more than three months every year, during which period the residents are entirely cut off from the outer world. The climate, however, is healthy and bracing. The population of the place is estimated at 60,000.

The chief articles of trade at the port are Beans and Bean-cake; 2,241,053 piculs of the former and 2,289,544 piculs of the latter being exported in 1899. Japan took 93 per cent, of the native productions in 1899. The net quantity of Opium imported in 1898 was 92 piculs, compared with 2,453 piculs in 1879. The import of Opium has of late years shown an almost continuous decline, the poppy being largely and successfully culti- vated in Manchuria. The total value of the trade of the port for 1899 amounted to Tls. 48,357,623 as against Tls. 32,441,315 in 1898. The port figured conspicuously in the troubles in China in 1900, the Chinese troops who attacked the town being defeated by the Russians, who took possession of the port. Trade in 1900 was necessarily suspended.