Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 1043

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MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

自蒙 Mêng-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 I 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 20 miles long by about 12 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 1922 was Hk. Tls. 22,222,855, as compared with Hk. Tls. 18,321,246 for 1921, Hk. Tls. 22,226,143 for 1920, and Hk. Tls. 18,958,822 for 1919. The Chinese merchants avail them- selves largely of the advantages offered by the transit pass system. The value of the trade of the Yunnanfu, Pishihchai, Hokow, Mapai and Manhao branch offices is included in the Mengtsz Custom returns. The province depends for its purchasing power on tin. In his report for 1920, the Commissioner of Customs said: "With a Government which will grant a respite froin the war with neighbouring provinces, which will re-establish order and guarantee some security for life and property throughout the country, and will enforce strict legislation against the ⠀⠀destruction of the forests, there is little doubt that Yunnan, with its mineral treasures and mountains so well adapted for the growing of timber, might casily become a pros- perous and wealthy country and that it would supply the rest of China with timber and metal in sufficient quantities to make the Republic independent as regards these commodities.

Unless severe laws against the destruction of the forests are promptly enforced, in a very few years, the last of her forests having disappeared and taken away with them the remaining chances of an impoverished land to recover i itself, South Yunnan will resemble the arid desert of North China, swept by droughts; floods, and famine and an eyesore and a drain on the resources of the rest of the country." 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. In 1922, Messrs. Andersen, Meyer & Co., Brunner, Mond & Co.,. and Shewan, Tomes & Co. all closed their offices in Yunnan, chiefly because they found it impossible to do business with the Yunnanese. The last rail on the Laokay- Yunnanfu section of the Annam-Yunnan Railway was laid on the 1st of February, 1910, and two months later the whole line-470 kilometres-was opened to passenger and goods traffic. A branch office of the Mengtsz Customs was opened at Yunnanfu on 20th April, 1910. Mêngtsz is now only 8 hours by rail from the Tonkin border and 22 hours from the coast. The Ko-Pi Railway, constructed practically single-handed by Mr. D. Niflis, a capable and energetic French engineer, was completed and through traffic from Mengtsz and Pishihchai to Kochiu started in 1921. The railway is miniature and travelling space cramped, but the time saved as compared with travelling in the time-honoured chair is of great importance. The British Consul has pointed out that not least of the benefits which the Annam-Yunnan line should confer would be the provision of sanatoria for Indo-China, even, may be, for Singapore, Bangkok and Hongkong. If for 20 years, he says, the Chinese peasant could be checked in his

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