Directory_and_Chronicle_1902 — Page 665

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CHINA

The

filatures remains unsold, and there seems no prospect of an immediate improvement in the market. Wild Filature Silk lost heavily in value, owing to the lack of demand from America, where this Silk was freely bought during the previous season. export of White Raw Silk fell from 59,845 to 31,796 piculs; Yellow Raw Silk, from 14,146 to 11,267 piculs; Wild Raw Silk, from 24,674 to 18,867 piculs; Steam Filature Silk, from 49,435 to 35,277 piculs; and Refuse Silk, from 91,254 to 60,182 piculs."

Although China is traversed in all directions by roads, they are usually mero

• tracks, or at best footpaths, along which the transport of goods is a tedious and difficult undertaking. It was owing to the imperfect means of communication that such a fearful mortality attended the last famines in Shansi, Honan, and Shantung. The enormous mineral wealth of Shan-Si is practically non-existent for the same reason, and there is every reason to fear that the present year (1902) will see in this province a repetition of the famine horrors of the Eighties. A vast internal trade is, however, carried on over the roads, and by means of numerous canals and navigable rivers. The most populous part of China is singularly well adapted for the construction of a network of railways, and a first attempt to introduce thein into the country was made in 1876, when a line from Shanghai to Woosung, ten miles in length, was constructed by an English company. The little rail- way was subsequently purchased by the Chinese Government and closed by them on the 21st October, 1877. Since that time the principle of railways has been fully accepted and several important lines are projected, while some are already in operation. A tramway a few miles in length, begun in 1881 to carry coal from the Kaiping coal mines, near Tongshan, to the canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin and Taku on the one hand, and to Kinchow and Newchwang on the Gulf of Liao-tung, on the other. This road was only completed in the early part of 1900, and during the summer months was between Kinchow and Newchwang, largely destroyed by the Chinese so as to preclude the advance of Russian forces on Peking via Manchuria. It is at present broken for a distance of some thirty miles eastwards of Kinchow. A line from Peking to Tientsin was opened in 1897, the Peking terminus being at Machiapu, a point two miles from the Tartar city, whence a short electric line connects it with one of the principal gates; the traffic developed so rapidly that in 1898-9 the line had to be doubled." From Lúkouchiao (or Marco Polo's Bridge) a line of about cighty miles in length has been constructed southward to Paotingfu, the capital of the province of Chihli; this line, in October, 1899, was handed over by the British con- structors to the Belgian Syndicate as an integral factor in the great trans-continental road from Peking to Hankow. These roads have all more or less been deliberately and in some parts completely destroyed by the Chinese during 1900. The Railways, as foreign innovations, were particularly lateful to the Boxers, who in many cases attacked the lines with a fury as intense as it was insensate; burning the stations, destroying bridges, firing the sleepers and carrying off the metals. Later on track destruction was a strong feature of the strategy of the Imperial troops, and from their point of view wisely so. It was the cutting of the Railway that was the sole cause of Admiral Seymour's failure in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations. All the lines in North China were attacked and badly cut: their repair was the first duty of the Allies and most of the damage is now being made good. The terminus at Peking has been brought inside the Chinese City and is at the Chien Meu or Southern Gate of the Manchu City. A branch line has been made from this terminus to Tung Chow, the head of the waterways; and both the French and Germans have pushed on the trunk lines being built under their exclusive auspices in Chihli and Honan, and in Shantung respectively. Railway vandalism was the first evidence of the savagery and magnitude of the Boxer sedition. It is significant that the Imperial Government was so inert in protecting its own property.

A line from Shanghai to Woosung, some fourteen miles in length, was opened in 1898, twenty-one years after the first line between the same termini was torn up. The total length of the railways already in operation is about 450 miles. A contract has been let to a Belgian Syndicate for the construction of a trunk line of about 650 miles in length from Hankow to Paotingfu, where it joins the existing Paotingfu and Lukoachiao line, thus giving through communication with Peking. Work on this line has been commenced at both ends, and large numbers of Belgian engineers arrived in 1899. The bridging of the Yellow River and the crossing of the Fuh Niw Mountains in. Honan, may offer some engineering difficulties. The American-China Development Company has obtained a concession for the construction of a line from Wuchang, on the southern bank of the Yangtsze immediately opposite to Hankow, to Canton. The British-Chinese

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