Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 985

YOCHOW

Yochow, with a population of 15,000 to 20,000, is situated in latitude 29'23′ N., and longitude 113° 8' E. (Greenwich), at the outlet of the Tungting Lake. Past it ebbs and flows practically the whole of the trade of Hunan, which, however, adds nothing to the prosperity of the place, as it simply passes by after having paid its inward and outward taxes. The city is the gateway of the province and nothing more. Efforts are being made, by Japanese, to find adequate communication with Changteh, the traile centre, whose opening to foreign trade was talked of in 1906. The opening of Changsha took away much of Yochow's transit trade.

The province of Hunan used to be to foreign commerce what Tibet has been to the explorer-a Forbidden Land-and it is only a few years ago that foreigners were stoned out of Yochow. In 1904, the people were described as showing a "friendly attitude" to all foreigners. The anti-foot-binding crusade has done well in Hunan, which was once the most anti-foreign province in all China. They are intensely patriotic, but their patriotism is rather for Hunan than for the Empire at large.

The province is rich in many forms of wealth, though the inhabitants say it consists of "three parts mountain, six water, and one arable soil." One of the main staples is rice, of which nearly a million piculs are sent out of the province to Hupeh and Kueichow in an average year. The Hunan tea sent to Hankow amounts to about six hundred thousand half-chests a year. The timber passing down past Changteh is valued officially at six million taels a year, and is probably worth more. There is also a large production of cotton. The mountain districts contain large fields of coal, both anthracite and bituminous; iron also is known to exist. Sulphur, antimony, nickel, and other minerals are even now exported, and great possibilities of development are undoubtedly to be found.

Steam launches and steamers run through from Hankow to Changsha with cargo and passengers, under River passes; and from Yochow to Inland places under Inland Steam Navigation Rules.

The city of Yochow is perched on a bluff in a very picturesque way. Its site is, however, not adapted for a transit trade, and it offers no shelter for small craft. The port has, therefore, been opened at Chenglin, five miles to the north and only a mile. from the Yangtsze, where a small creek provides the needed shelter for cargo-boats, and a good anchorage is found for steamers. Here the Chinese Government has set aside a place for a cosmopolitan settlement, for which they themselves will provide roads, police, etc.; the site contains level ground for business purposes, well raised, but not too high, above flood limits, while higlier ground gives good and healthy sites for foreign houses. Work on the formation of the settlement and bunding operations were commenced in 1900, and a new Custom-house and quarters have been built. Yochow is described by the Customs Commissioner as "doubtless the healthiest town in the Yangtse Valley, considering the insanitary conditions." In 1900, really the first open year of the port, the net value of the trade was Tls. 143,827. In 1903 it amounted to Tls. 3.473,241, but in 1905 the value was Tls. 490,053 only, and in 1906 notwithstanding a prohibition of the export of rice, the returns show a net value of Tls. 747,088. The decline since 1904 is the result of the opening of Changsha as a Treaty Port.

A noteworthy incident in 1906 was a successful pioneering trip across the Lake and up the Yuan to Changteh of Messrs. Butterfield & Swire's Steamer Siangtan, under Inland Steam Navigation rules. Thousands of good-humoured sightseers lined the banks of the river to gaze at the first merchant steamer to visit the mart.

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