Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 1065

AMOY

969

Amoy ranks as a third-class city. It is considered, even for China, to be very dirty, and its inhabitants are unusually squalid in their habits. There are several places of interest to foreigners in the vicinity, and excursions can be made to Chang- chow-fu, the chief city of the department of that name, and situated about 35 miles from Amoy The island of Kulangsu ["Drum Wave Island," from a hollow rock in which the incoming tide causes a booming sound] is about a third of a mile from Amoy, and the residences of nearly all the foreigners are to be found there, although most of the foreign business is transacted on the Amoy side. It is a remarkably pretty island, and will become exceedingly popular with tourists and holiday-makers as its attractions become better known. The island of Kulangsu_was handed over by China as an International settlement on the 1st May, 1903. In the opinion of the Commissioner of Customs, Kulangsu bids fair to become one of the most charming little republics on the coast of China. The value of land on the island of Kulangsu has enhanced 100 per cent. compared with the prices ruling a decade ago. Hotel accommodation is satisfactory, and an electric lighting plant was installed in 1913. There a good club in the settlement, adjoining which is the cricket ground. A golf club has been formed and a course laid out on the Racecourse. The course is a sporting one, abounding in natural hazards, and is well patronised. A neat little Anglican Church has also been erected. A Japanese Settlement was marked out in 1899 and a fair number of Japanese, officials and others, reside there. There is a slipway at Amoy, owned and managed by foreigners. The Standard Oil Co. of New York have erected oil tanks at Sing-Su on the mainland, and close on the site of the new station of the Amoy-Changchow railway now in active construction, kerosene oil tanks, capable of turning out 4,000 tins a day, the property of the Asiatic Petroleum Com- pany, have also been erected. The foreign residents number about 280. At the end of October, 1908, the Chinese Government welcomed part of the American battleship fleet at Amoy, the officers and men being entertained on a lavish scale.

is

»

Frequent and regular steamer communication is maintained with Hongkong, Swatow, Foochow and Formosa, and steamers occasionally run directly to the Straits Settlements and Manila. There has always been a comparatively good trade done at Amoy, and notwithstanding that the tea trade, for which it was long famous, has now practically disappeared, it is significant that the shipping tonnage employed by the port has quintupled since the decade 1864-73, and almost trebled since the decade 1874- 83. Yet the recent reports of the Commissioners of Customs have pointed out that if allowance is made for the fall of silver, in studying the average annual values of the import trade, we shall have to assume that imports, like exports, have been stationary for

many years past. The explanation of the growth in shipping tonnage would there- fore appear to be exclusively indicative of the development of the coolie traffic to the Malay Archipelago, "humanity being now the staple export of Amoy." The returns of the native passenger traffic for 1909 show that 52,163 left Amoy for the Straits, and 36,578 landed at Amoy, mostly from Hongkong and the Straits. The numbers have been steadily declining of late and a Commissioner of Customs a few years ago suggested that many years of emigration are beginning to tell, and that with lesser competition at home those who remain are able to get better wages than formerly in the service, directly or indirectly, of their "returned emigrant countrymen. In former times, ere the glory of Amoy had departed, the staple export was Tea-the local product as well as the superior blends brought over from Formosa- but, largely owing to the deterioration of the local product, and the indifference of the grower to the changing conditions of the foreign market, locally-grown tea has long since ceased to be exported, and the Customs Commissioner made a fairly safe prophecy that it only required the development of Keelung harbour to cause the total disappearance of the foreign tea merchant from Amoy. Before the Japanese obtained possession of Formosa the Formosan teas were "settled" and warehoused in Amoy whence they were shipped to the foreign markets. Now no Formosan tea is "settled in Amoy, andwith Keelung still unimproved to any considerable extent, quite 50 per- cent. of the Formosan product is being shipped direct to America from Keelung. The foreign tea merchant at Amoy has practically lost his occupation, and we are witnessing the fulfilment of the prediction that "the row of quaint, rambling, old hongs on the Amoy side, and many picturesque residences on Kulangsu will be offering for the occupation of the wealthy returned emigrant or the missionary school." net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs in 1914 was Hk. Tls. 18,571,525 as compared with Hk. Tls. 20,068,932 in 1913, Hk. Tls. 20,882,834 in 1912, and Hk. Tls. 20,413,339 in 1911.

The