NEWCHWANG
689
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 phrase 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 Eastern Chinese Railway Line and the Imperial Chinese Railway Line from Tientsin to Yingkow greatly increased the importance of the port. There is now a train service through to St. Petersburg. Systematic attack has also at last been made upon the mineral resources of Manchuria, the Eastern Chinese Railway having opened coal mines at Mo-ch'i-shan and Tz'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. The well-known gold-bearing districts of Tung Wha and Tieling are also being worked by foreign companies. An unprecedented expansion in trade has accompanied these developments. The country about the port of Newchwang is bare and desolate, and in sailing up 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 used to be, in pre-railway days, 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 foreign population (7,699) included 7,408 Japanese in 1906, and only one Russian !
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The chief articles of trade at the port are Beans and Bean-cake; the export being principally to Japan. The import of Opium has of late years shown an almost continuous decline, the poppy being largely and successfully cultivated in Manchuria, but the import of foreign Opium in 1906, namely 79 piculs, was considerably larger than for any year since 1900. The total net value of the trade of the port in 1906 was Tls, 44,482,001 as against Tls. 61,752,905, in 1905, and Tls. 41,517,878 in 1904. The decline in 1906 may be attributed partly to want of railway facilities and to obstacles to free access to the interior,
The port was for about two years, until November 1906, under Japanese military administration, when it was retroceded to the Chinese. Among the conditions of the retrocession was one that Japanese should be engaged for the police and health admini- strations.
記瑞 Jui.chi
ARNHOLD KARBERG & Co.
E. S. Leeds
C. Tüngel
J. Baurmeister (Mukden)
Agencies
Messageries Maritimes American & Oriental Line
DIRECTORY
Shell Transport & Trading Co. Ld. China Traders Insurance Co. Ld. Aachener & Muenchener Feuer Versg.
Gesellschaft
London Assurance Corporation South British Fire & Marine Insurance
Co. of N. Z.
Allgemeine Electr. Gesellschaft, Berlin A. Borsig, Berlin-Tegal
Arthur Koppel, A.G., Berlin
Chinese Engineering & Mining Co., Ld.
Soeychee Cotton Spinning Co., Ld.
Shanghai
昌旗
Chee-chang
BANDINEL & Co., Merchants and Shipping
Agents; Teleph. No. 26
F. D. Farmer
G. Farmer
P. Farmer
C. John
L. Rama
M. Yamanichi
Y. T. Kwo
Agencies
National Bank of China, Limited Nippon Yusen Kaisha
China Shipowners' Association Norddeutscher Lloyd Hamburg-America Line
Austrian Lloyd's Steam Navign. Co. Northern Pacific Steamship Company Dodwell & Co.'s Steamers
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Russian Steam Navigation Company Baltic Steamship Co., of Riga Pacific Steamship Co., “Energia Transatlantic Transport Insee. Co., Ld. Continental Insurance Company Imperial Marine Insurance Company Hanseatischer Lloyd Internationaler Lloyd Sun Fire Office
Standard Life Assurance Company
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