Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 1051

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

HANGCHOW

955

of outsiders to come in have always failed after a few trips. The Railway, however, is proving a serious rival.

One of the sights of Hangchow is the famous western lake, dotted with islets crowned with shrines and memorial temples, and spanned by causeways joining island to island. The general picturesque effect is heightened by temples, pagodas, and similar monuments judiciously placed in effective spots, while the slopes of the hills bordering the lake on the west are bright with azaleas, honeysuckle, and peach-bloom, and clusters of bamboos, several kinds of conifers, the stillignia, camphor tree, and maple in rich profusion, all help to make the scene very pretty. The western wall of the city has been pulled down and made into a promenade along the West Lake, and a large hotel, foreign style, has been opened near to the city railway station.

The site selected for the Foreign Settlement extends for half a mile along the east bank of the Grand Canal; it covers over half a square mile and is about four miles from the city wall. The Japanese concession adjoins it on the North and is about the same size. The Custom-house and Commissioner's and assistants' residences are built on the Customs Lot, and an imposing Police Station has also been put up. A British Consulate has been built on the opposite side of the Japanese Concession, not in the settlement. The commodities chiefly dealt in are tin, Japanese copper, kerosene oil, soap, sugar, prepared tobacco, varnish, paper fans, silk piece goods, raw silk and tea. The principal article of export is tea. The tea comes from Anhwei and Pingsuey near Shaohsing and from the neighbourhood of Hangchow, where the valuable Lungching tea is grown. The net value of the trade of the port in 1914 was Tis. 17,144,758 as compared with Tls. 17,261,517 in 1913, Tls. 20,205,949 in 1912, and Tls. 17,698,031 in 1911. In 1900 it was Tls. 9,433,771.

Halfway between Hangchow and Shanghai is Kashing, where the Grand Canal joins the Whangpoo River on which Shanghai is situated. Kashing is a Customs Sta- tion under Hangchow and was first opened in 1898 for collecting duties on foreign opium owing to fiscal arrangements being against the collection at Hangchow. It now collects duties both on imports and exports and has become quite an important factor.

Cholera in 1902 killed 10,000 people. A railway from the Settlement to the fur- ther end of Hangchow City near the Chien Tang river was completed in Sept., 1907. It was built solely by Chinese and with Chinese capital. There is now railway connection with Shanghai via Kashing. Twenty-eight miles north of Hangchow is situated the now well-known summer resort Mokanshan. It can be reached from Shanghai by way of the railway and a motor-boat in ten hours. There are now over a hundred houses on the slope of a hill about 3,000 feet high. The scenery is magnificent and the view unequalled. Bamboo forests cover the mountain and afford shade to all the roads. Clear mountain springs abound, chairs and coolies for baggage are always available, and are under contract with the Mokanshan Association. Houses more or less completely furnished can be rented at Tls. 100 to 350 per season (four months). The Shanghai Municipality has lately purchased two houses as a sanatarium for their employes, and a competent nurse is in charge. The difference in temperature from the plain amounts to 10° in the day and 15° at night.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 1051

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