Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 1092

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

CHUNGKING

899

feet, on 2nd August, 1903, it rose to 93 feet, the water not being able to force its way

fast enough through the gorges. On the 11th August, 1905, the river rose to 108 feet. According to a Chinese report the river rose 120 feet in 1878. An extra- ordinary landslip occurred in September, 1896, some distance below Chungking, which forms a dangerous rapid and greatly interferes with traffic on the river. Operations are now in progress for the removal of the obstruction. On the left bank of the Kialing 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 immediate 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. The net value of the trade in 1907 was 27,045,904; 1906 Tls. 28,996,206; 1905 Tls. 27,731,627; in 1904, it was Tls. 29,403,966; and in 1903 Tls. 29,222,120. Rebellious disturbances in years past adversely affected trade, but recently the province enjoyed comparative immunity in this respect. A rising, started in 1904 by a man who said be was commissioned by Heaven to wipe out the missionaries, was ruthlessly suppressed. One church was burned, and a few converts killed, and then "the Chinese officials caused shell to be fired into the mob until all (several hundred) were killed!" A local police force has been created.

The Yangtze is navigable for steamers from Ichang, not only to Chungking, but as far as Sui-fu, where the Min river joins the Yangtze, 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 sinall 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 Yangtze Trading Company's steainer, 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. The German steamer Suihsiang was wrecked on her first voyage sixty miles above Ichang. For all practical purposes Ichang is the present limit of steam navigation on the Yangtze.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 1092

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