Directory_and_Chronicle_1921 — Page 1034

952

COMMISSIONER

KWANG-SI

LUNGCHOW-MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

DIRECTORY

OF THE FRONTIER OF MISSIONS

Tupan-Colonel P'êng Yu-shêng

Secretary-Ou-Ko

署事頜國法大

FRENCH CONSULATE

Vice-Consul-L Troy

##N# Lung-chow-hsin-kuan

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

MISSION DE KOUANG-SI (LUNGCHOW)

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION

Rev. Father L. Barrière, Lungchow

Rev. Crocq, Taipingfu

Rev. Coysac, Haiyuen

局支政郵州龍

Acting Commissioner-A. P. A. Boui-

nais

POST OFFICE, CHINESE

Tidewaiter-G. Di Paolo

Clerk-Chiao Pa Yung

Postal Commissioner-(at Nanning) Second Class Postmaster-Seu-tou

Seun

MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

自蒙 Méng-isz

This is a district city in south-east Yunnan, and together with Man-hao, a village on the left bank of the Red River, was opened to trade by the Additional Convention to the French Treaty of Tientsin of the 25th April, 1886, signed at Peking on the 26th June, 1887. The town is two days' journey from Man-hao and about six days' from the frontier of Tonkin at Laokay, and beautifully situated, being built on a cultivated plateau twenty miles long by about twelve miles in breadth, encircled by picturesque mountains, and is 4,280 feet above the level of the sea. It has a population of about 11,000 persons, but was a place of much more importance before the Mahommedan rebellion, as the numerous well-built temples, many of them now in ruins, still testify. It is, however, a considerable commercial emporium even now, and is becoming an important centre for the distribution of foreign goods imported via Tonkin. The French Consul hoisted his flag at Mêngtsz on the 30th April, 1889, and the Customs station was opened in the following August. The net value of the trade of the port for 1919 was Hk. Tls. 18,409,899, as compared with Hk. Tls. 20,873,043 for 1918, Hk. Tls. 18,730,383 for 1917, and Hk. Tls. 14,973,275 for 1916. The Chinese merchants avail them- selves largely of the advantages offered by the transit pass system. The value of the trade of the Yunnan-fu, Pishihchai, Hokow, Mapai and Manhao branch offices is included in the Mengtsz Custom returns. The decrease in the figures for 1919 is due to

due to the reduced demand for tin, on which the province depends for its purchasing power. The climate of Mêngtsz is temperate and salubrious. Plague has been absent from Mêngtsz since 1899. During the winter good sport is obtained, snipe and wild fowl being abundant in the plains and some pheasant and partridge in the hilly districts. A new French Consulate was finished in 1893, new dwelling-houses for members of the Customs service in 1894, and a new Custom-house in the spring of 1895. All these buildings are outside the East gate of the city. On the 22nd June, 1899, a riot occurred, in the course of which the Custom-house and French Consulate were looted. The Compagnie Lyonnaise Indo-Chinoise in 1899 opened a branch in Mêngtsz. Others have followed in their footsteps and four large commercial houses in Indo-China are now represented. The last rail on the Laokay-Yunnan-fu section of the Annam-Yunnan Railway was laid on the 1st of February, 1910, and two months later the whole line

+