Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 1015

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

WUCHOW

1027

principal articles of export are timber, oils (aniseed, cassia, wood and tea), indigo, hides, and live stock. The coal, which should form one of Wuchow's largest exports, still lies buried in the surrounding hills. There is daily steam communication with Canton, the two steamers of the British West River Steamship Co. affording excellent passenger accommodation.

The round trip from Canton takes four days: the boat leaving Canton on Friday mornings remains over Sunday in Wuchow. The direct trade with Hongkong is now carried on by eight cargo steamers. During the last three years a large native passenger trade has sprung up between Wuchow and up-river towns: launches leave daily during the summer months for Konghau, Kuaiping and Kueihsien, and weekly four motor boats make regular, and five launches make irregular, trips to Nanning, averaging three trips a week. The floods in 1902 were the highest on record, the water in the river rising to 68. 3." The lowest winter reading was 1.10 feet below zero in December 1906. In winter the only local industry worthy of mention is boat building; when the river falls the foreshore is lined with matsheds where native craft of all descriptions, from a huge salt junk to a diminutive sampan, are constructed.

Wuchow itself offers few attractions to the tourist, but the river scenery on the way up, especially between the Shuihing and Takhing Gorges, where the stream winds in and out among the green hills to form a succession of apparent lakes, is extremely picturesque, and has not altogether unjustly been compared to the Rhine. Wuchow is connected by telegraph with Hongkong, Shanghai, etc.; and the Imperial Chinese Post has established postal communication withi the principal towns in Kwangsi.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1910 — Page 1015

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