Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 747

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TIENTSIN

generally believed that no lasting success will attend the remedial measures until steps are taken to deal with the Taku Bar by permanent dredging; meanwhile by closing the canals and creeks which take off most of the flood tide, by giving a larger radius of curvature to the bends, and by widening the Reach, and making three cuttings to straighten the river, its navigability has been greatly ameliorated. Work on the bar was commenced during 1906, the Shipping Companies and British Municipality having come to terms in regard to financing the work. A channel of some depth has been made with lakes and is now being used by vessels as it offers an additional 14 inches depth of water. The trade of the city no longer depends entirely on this route, however. The railway now carries nearly 50 per cent. of the city's trade with the interior, and railway development generally in the district promises to make the trade less dependent upon the river. Chinwangtao makes an excellent winter jetty.

The expeditions of the allies in 1858-61 greatly enhanced the importance of the city, as it then proved to be the military key of the capital and an excellent base. It was here on June 26th, 1858, that Lord Elgin signed the treaty which was to conclude the war but which unhappily led to its prolongation. The famous temple in which the treaty was signed, about a mile distant from the West gate, was destroyed by British shells in July, 1900.

During the long satrapy of Li the trade and importance of the city developed exceedingly. Li, by the vigour of his rule, soon quelled the rowdyism for which the Tientsinese were notorious throughout the empire, and as he made the city his chief residence and the centre of his many experiments in military and naval education, it came to be regarded as the focus of the new learning and national reform. The foreign affairs of China were practically directed from Tientsin during the two decades 1874-94, and now continues under Viceroy Yuan Shi Kai.

The city will ever be infamous to Europeans from the massacre of the French Sisters of Mercy and other foreigners on June 21st, 1870, in which the most appalling brutality was exhibited; as usual the political agitators who instigated the riot got off. The Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was destroyed on that occasion, was rebuilt, and the new building was consecrated in 1897, only to again fall a victim to Boxer fury in 1900. The building occupied a commanding site on the river bank. All the missions and many of the foreign hongs had agencies in the city prior to the debacle of 1900.

The population was reputed to be 1,000,000, but there is no statistical evidence to justify such large figures. The city walls were quadrate and extended about 4,000 feet in the direction of each cardinal point; during the year 1901 they were entirely demolished and replaced by fine open boulevards under the orders of the Foreign Military Provisional Government. This body has further bunded the whole of the Hai Ho (Pei-ho) and effected other numberless urban improvements. The advent of foreigners has caused a great increase in the value of real estate all over Tientsin, and as new industries are introduced every year, the tendency is still upward.

Li Hung-chang authorised Mr. Tong Kin-seng to sink a coal shaft at Tong Sha (60 miles N.E. of Tientsin) in the seventies; this was done and proved the precursor of a railway, which has since been extended to Shanhaikwan for military purposes, and from thence round the Gulf of Liau Tung to Kinchow; 1900 saw this line pushed on to Newchwang. In 1897 the line to Peking was opened, and proved such a success that the line had to be doubled in 1898-9. A side station for the Tientsin City was opened in 1904, and in 1905 the station was built of white sand stone bricks made at Huangsue by an Italian called Marzoli who has opened a brick factory on a large scale. From Feng-tai, about 7 miles from the capital, the trans-continental line to Hankow branches off. This line was completed and opened to traffic in November, 1905. In 1900 the violence of the Boxers was chiefly directed against the railways, all of which were more or less destroyed, but under British, French, and Russian military administration they have almost all been restored to their former efliciency. As usual, the railway has brought all sorts of foreseen and unforeseen contingencies with it. Farmers up near Shanhaikwan are supplying fruit and vegetables to Tientsin. An enormous trade in pea-nuts (with Canton) has been created. Coal has come extensively into Chinese household use; the foreign residents are developing a first-rate watering place at Pei-tai-ho on the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and all the various industries of the city have been stimulated. Brick buildings are springing up in all directions and the depressing-looking adobe (mud) huts are diminishing.

Foreigners formerly lived in three concessions, British, French, and German, which fringed the river below the City and covered an area of less than 500 acres. The Japanese took up a concession in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of

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