Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 946

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

838

CHUNGKING

of Kiang-Peh-ting, formerly within the district of Li Min Fu, but now incorporated in Chungking Fu. These two cities and the large villages in their immediate neighbourhood are estimated to contain a population of about 300,000.

The port was declared open to foreign trade in March, 1891, but business did not actually commence until the 18th June, since which date a large trade has been done both in imports and exports, carried in foreign chartered junks. The net value of the trade in 1921 was Hk. Tls. 52,115,511, as compared with Hk. Tls. 35,429,409 in 1920, Hk. Tls. 41,572,332 in 1919, Hk. Tls. 30,099,757 in 1918 and Hk. Tls. 33,592,533 in 1917. Trade, since the revolution, has been affected by brigandage in the interior. Bands of robbers haunt the roads throughout the picvince, especially in the mountainous regions, and merchants fear to transport cargo. A rising, started in 1904 by a man who said he was commissioned by Heaven to wipe out the missionaries, was ruthlessly suppressed. One church was burned and a few converts were killed, and then "the Chinese officials caused shell to be fired into the mob until all (several hundred) were killed!" A local police force has been created.

The Yangtsze is navigable for steamers from Ichang, not only to Chungking, but as far as Sui-fu, where the Min river joins the Yangtsze, and during high water in summer the Min river is also navigable as far as Kiating. By the Japanese Treaty of 1894, the right of steam navigation to Chungking was secured, and in the spring of 1898 the voyage was successfully accomplished by Mr. A. Little, with the small steamer Leechuen, which, however, being of limited power, had to be tracked up the rapids in the same way as junks. On 6th May, 1900, the two light-draught British gunboats Woodcock and Woodlark arrived from Ichang, having left that port on 5th April. The return journey occupied 25 steaming hours. On 12th June, the Yangtze Trading Company's steamer, the Pioneer, commenced her maiden voyage and arrived at Chungking on 20th June. This steamer was afterwards purchased by the British Government. Freight rates by junk have enormously increased in recent years -in spite of which, junk-owners complain of being unable to make both ends meet. There are signs, however, that the possibilities of largely overcoming present difficul- ties by the increased use of steam traffic, and the harvest to be reaped, are beginning to be grasped by the more conservative steamship companies. The s.s. Loongmow, of about 1,000 tons gross tonnage, specially built for the Ichang-Chungking run, made her appearance in June, 1920, and on more than one occasion, steaming by daylight only, has completed in less than six days the round trip to Ichang. With the present accurate surveying of the Upper Yangtsze and the aids to navigation which have been installed, as well as the measures which are now being taken to organise a reliable pilotage service, the voyage from Ichang to this port by steamer is no longer the gambling proposition which it formerly used to be considered, and the difficulties under which the junk traffic now labours appear to have opened the eyes of the steamer companies to the probabilities of successful competition even at much higher rates of freight. Should all the schemes for the construction of steamers for the Upper Yangtsze run come to fruition, there appears to be a bright future for the port. The great increase in the number of steamers on the Upper Yangtsze during recent years has made aids to navigation through the gorges and rapids between Ichang and Chungking_imperative. To meet this need a system of signals and buoys has been adopted, and it is now possible with suitable craft and the exercise of -sufficient discrimination in the selection of crew and pilots for steamers to navigate

Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 946

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