Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 971

CHUNGKING

慶重 Chung-king

The city of Chungking, situated in lat. 29 deg. 33 min. 56 sec. N., long. 106 deg. 30 min. E., may well be described as not only the commercial capital of Szechuen but of the whole of Western China. The foreign import trade centres here, and is then distributed by a smaller class of trading junks up the various rivers of the province. All exports yellow silk, white wax, hides, wool, hemp, feathers, bristles, rhubarb, musk, and the large assortment of Chinese medicines are received, assorted, repacked- and shipped to Ichang, Hankow, and Shasi, consignments to the last named port being. transhipped there into smaller junks and forwarded to the southern provinces, via the Tung Ting lake.

The city occupies the end of a high and rocky bluff forming a peninsula, at the junction of the river Kia-ling with the Yangtsze, 1,400 miles from the mouth of the latter. The principal streets of the city, in which are many fine shops, are on the side of the Yangtsze. The city is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall in good repair, which is some five miles in circumference, pierced with nine gates. This wall was built in 1761, replacing an older one. Chungking is now electrically lighted, a native company with an authorised capital of $300,000 having been formed for that purpose. The climate of Chungking is depressing, the summer being hot and damp, the winters raw and chilly, with thick fogs from November to March. Spring and Autumn can indeed hardly be said to exist. The ordinary rise of the river is about 75 feet; on 6th August, 1898, it rose to 101 ft., on 11th August, 1905, to 108 ft., on 22nd July, 1920, to 95 ft. 2 in., the highest level recorded for 15 years, and on 14th July, 1921, to 100 ft. In 1908 it only attained a height of 52 feet 4 inches. According to a Chinese report, the river rose 120 feet in 1878. On the left bank of the Kialing and facing Chungking, extending below the junction of the two rivers, is the walled city 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 1922 was Hk. Tls. 60,179,809, as compared with Hk. Tls. 52,115,511 in 1921, . Hk. Tls. 35,429,409 in 1920, Hk. Tls. 41,572,332 in 1919, and Hk. Tls. 30,099,757 in 1918. Trade, since the revolution, has been affected by brigandage in the interior. Bands of robbers haunt the roads throughout the province, 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.