Directory_and_Chronicle_1903 — Page 796

CHUNGKING

I Chung-king

The city of Chungking, situated in lat. 29 deg. 33 min. 30 sec. N., long. 107 deg. 2 min. E., may well be described as not only the commercial capital of Szechuen, but of the whole of Western China. The foreign import trade centres here, and is then distributed by a smaller class of trading junks up the various rivers of the province. All exports--yellow silk, white wax, hides, leather, feathers, bristles, rhubarb, musk, opium, and the large assortment of Chinese medicines--are received, assorted, repacked, and shipped to Ichang, Hankow, and Shasi, consignments to the latter port being transhipped there into smaller junks, and forwarded to the southern provinces, via the Tung Ting lake.

The city occupies the end of a high and rocky bluff forming a peninsula, at the junction of the river Kia-ling with the Yangtsze, 1,400 miles from the mouth of the latter. The principal streets of the city, in which are many fine shops, are on the side of the Yangtsze. It is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall in good repair, which is some five miles in circumference, pierced with nine gates. This wall was built in 1761, replacing an older one. The climate of Chungking is depressing, the summer being hot and damp, the winters raw and chilly, with thick fogs from November to March. Spring and autumn can indeed hardly be said to exist. The ordinary rise of the river is about 70 feet; in 1892 it rose 96 feet, and in 1897 to 191 feet, the water not being able to force its way fast enough through the gorges. An extraordinary landslip occurred in September, 1896, some distance below Chungking, which forms a dangerous rapid and greatly interfered with traffic on the river. Operations are now in progress for the removal of the obstruction. On the left bank of the Kia- ling and facing Chungking, extending below the junction of the two rivers, is the walled city of Kiang-Peh-ting, formerly within the district of Li Min Fu, but now incorporated in Chungking Fu. These two cities and the large villages in their im- mediate neighbourhood are estimated to contain a population of about 300,000.

The port was declared open to Foreign trade in March, 1891, but business did not actually commence until the 18th June, since which date a large trade has been done both in imports and exports, carried in foreign chartered junks, but latterly the trade has been checked by rebellious disturbances. The net value of the trade in 1901 was Tis. 24,268.728, Tls. 24,452,066 in 1900, and 1899 Tls. 25,792,677.

The Yangtsze is navigable for steamers from Tehang, not only to Chungking, but as far as Sui-fu, where the Min river joins the Yangtsze, but before the Japanese war, steamers were not allowed to ascend above Ichang. By the Japanese treaty of 1894, however, the right of steam navigation to Chungking was secured, and in the spring of 1898 the voyage was successfully accomplished by Mr. A. Little with the small steamer Leechuen, which, however, being of limited power, had to be tracked up the rapids in the same way as junks. On 6th May, 1900, the two light-draught British gunboats Woodcock and Woodlark arrived from Ichang, having left that port on 5th April. The return journey occupied 25 steaming hours. On 12th June, the Yangtsze Trading Company's steamer, the Pioneer, commenced her maiden voyage and arrived at Chungking on 20th June. This steamer was afterwards purchased by the British Government. Several steamers have since been built for the Upper Yangtsze, and in December the German steamer Suihsiang was wrecked on her first voyage sixty miles above Ichang. The Commissioner of Customs in his report for 1901 says "The navigation of the Yangtsze between Ichang and Wan-hsien for merchant steamers is unanimously considered insuperable by all those with whom I have discussed the subject, whose practical knowledge of the river entitles them to be named authorities. The difficulties and obstructions to be overcome, the delays at the different rapids, and consequent expense to the ship, are of such a nature as to preclude all hopes of profit, although the actual feasibility of getting to Chungking by steam has already been demonstrated by the S.S. Pioneer and by gun-boats."

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