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NEWCHWANG
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. Newchwang is well served by Railways, viz: (1) the Imperial Railways of North China, giving a direct service to Peking, Tientsin and Mukden; (2) the South Manchuria Railway, giving a direct service to Dalny, Port Arthur, Mukden, Tieling and Kuanchentze, and thence to the Trans Siberian Railway. The South Manchurian Railway will shortly be brought, by means of an extension, to the business part of the town. There are 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, but since the Russo-Japanese war the mines have not been worked, nor has work yet been resumed in the well-known gold-bearing district of Tung Wha which, prior to the war, was being worked by foreign companies. It is expected to recommence in Tung Wah after proper surveys, etc., have been made, a powerful British Syndicate having been formed to develop, and work these mines. At Tieling mining is being done by natives only and is of the crudest possible description. In the years 1907 and 1908, owing to bad crops, native failures, etc., and the opening of Dalny, there has been an alarming shrinkage of trade, which promises to revive in 1909, as the past year's crops were excellent.
The country about the port of Newchwang is bare and desolate, and in sailing up the 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 and large quantities of Kaoliang (or millet). 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 popula- tion of the place is estimated at 60,000. The foreign population (7,699) included 7,408 Japanese in 1906, and only one Russian!
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. Only nine piculs of foreign opium were imported in 1907. The total net value of the trade of the port in 1907 was Tls. 32,294,663 as against Tls. 44,432,001 in 1906, and Tls. 61,752,905, in 1905 showing a steady decline, attributable partly to want of railway facilities and to obstacles to free access into the interior.
The port was for about two years, until November 1906, under Japanese military administration, when it was retroceded to the Chinese. But the Japanese have retained an extensive concession which they govern entirely themselves, and do not recognize Chinese authority therein. Among the conditions of the retrocession was one that Japanese should be engaged for the police and health administrations.
記瑞 Jui.chi
ARNHOLD KARBERG & Co.
E. Lüders, signs per pro.
E. S. Leeds
J. Baurmeister (Mukden)
Agencies
Norddeutscher Lloyd American & Oriental Line Weir's North China Line Messageries Maritimes
DIRECTORY
Chinese Engineering & Mining Co., Ld. Nobel Bros, Naphta-Production Co. China Traders Insurance Co. Ld. Aachen-Munich Fire Insce. Co. Ltd.
London Assurance Corporation
South British Fire & Marine Inse Co. Allianz Fire Insce. Co. of Berlin Allgemeine Electr. Gesellschaft
A. Borsig, Berlin-Tegal
Arthur Koppel, A.G., Light Railways Soey Chee Cotton Spinning Co., Ld.
Shanghai
Chee Hsin Cement Co. Ltd., Tientsin Baldwin Locomotive Works
U. S. Steel Corporation
ASTOR HOUSE HOTEL
W. S. Ward, manager
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