Directory_and_Chronicle_1914 — Page 1078

SWATOW

頭汕 Shan-tau

Swatow, which was first thrown open to foreigners by the Treaty of Tientsin, is situated at the mouth of the river Han, near the eastern border of the Kwangtung province, in lat. 23 deg. 20 min. 43 sec. N., and long. 116 deg. 39 min. 3. sec. E. It is the shipping port for the city of Cha'o-chow-fu, the seat of the local government, 35 miles inland, and San-Ho-Pa, forty miles farther up the river.

Swatow is built on the northern bank of the Han, which forms part of an alluvial plain through which the branches of the river flow. The shore on the opposite side is bold and striking, the hills stretching away to the coast and forming what is known to sea-going people as the "Cape of Good Hope." Pagoda Hill rises at the opposite side; and in a direct line from this lies the large island of Namoa.

The first foreign trading depôt in this locality was inaugurated at Namoa, where the opium vessels used to anchor, but it was subsequently removed to Double Island, which is situated just inside the river and is four miles from Swatow. Foreigners here made themselves notorious in the early years of the settlement by the kidnapping of coolies, and so strong was the feeling shown against them by the natives that no foreigner was safe far from Double Island, while they were strictly forbidden to enter Swatow, and it was not until 1861 that they could do so. In the country round Swatow the antipathy to foreigners was of much longer duration. The British Consul was held technically to reside at Cha'o-chow-fu, and subsequent to 1861 several ineffectual attempts were made to pass through its gates. In 1866 a visit was made under more favourable circumstances, but it is only within very recent years that the population has refrained from annoyance and insult to foreigners within its walls. In 1862 the lease of a piece of land was applied for and granted to the British Government on the north bank of the river about a mile from Swatow, but so strong were the demonstra- tions of the populace against it that the matter fell through. Foreign residences, however, commenced to spring up here and there, and many of them are consequently somewhat scattered, though the majority are in or near the town of Swatow. The yearly increasing traffic of the port led to much over-crowding on the narrow strip of land on which it is built, and since February, 1877, no less than 214 acres have been reclaimed from the sea, the greater part of which is now covered with shops and houses.

The climate of Swatow is reputed to be very salubrious. The town occupies, however, an unenviable position as regards typhoons, on account of being opposite the lower mouth of the Formosa Channel, and it has on many occasions been subjected to all the violence of these terrible storms, which almost every year sweep across the lower coast of China. The population of Swatow is estimated at 7,000 famílies representing 31,267 inhabitants.

A Chinese syndicate with a capital of two million dollars obtained the necessary sanction for the construction of a railway from Swatow to Ch'ao-chou-fu, and work was commenced on the line in 1904. The line, which is 241⁄2 miles in length, was opened to traffic on November 25th, 1906. The contractors were Japanese, who supplied all material, the rails and engines coming from America and the carriages from Japan. The construction of the line has brought about a great inflation of land values, as well as a notable influx of Japanese traders.

Swatow has now an electric light plant of its own, and on account of the cheap price at which the current is supplied this method of lighting is finding favour with the Chinese, and to some extent replacing the use of kerosine lamps. A new waterworks has recently been completed.

The foreign trade of Swatow has never been large. Tea and sugar were formerly the principal exports, but the tea trade here, as in other China ports, has to a very large extent passed away, and the sugar trade seems to be rapidly following it, the chief reason being that the superior sugar exported from Hongkong is finding increasing favour with consumers in the north, who formerly drew their supplies from Swatow.