Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 986

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

910.

CHANGSHA

Outside the city there is a very fine hospital, which was erected at a cost of $185,000 by a former Yale graduate for the use of the Hunan-Yale Medical College. The direction of the hospital is in the hands of a board, composed equally of repre- sentatives of the Hunan gentry and the Yale Mission. The Yale School and College buildings are in the immediate neighbourhood. These are all outside the north gate. Outside the south gate are the famed antimony works of the Huachang Company, which has branch offices in the Woolworth Building, New York. There are two

electric-lighting companies.

On the island are to be found the British Consulate and the residences of the indoor Customs and Post Office staffs and of the managers of the Standard Oil, Asiatic Petroleum, British-American Tobacco Companies, Butterfield & Swire and many other mercantile firins.

Motors run daily to Siangtan, a large town 30 miles to the south of Changsha The two cities are also connected by telephone. The motor-road is being extended on the south-west towards Paoking, an important city situated almost in the centre of the province and itself the centre of important iron and coal fields. Paoking has water communication with the outside world, but only by means of a river proverbially difficult of navigation because of the innumerable rapids which obstruct its course. This new extension of the road has been commenced with a contribution of gold $200,000 from the American Red Cross, in relief of the grievous famine which befel the province through the drought, which was prolonged throughout the summer of 1921 and caused the death by starvation of thousands of the people of the districts to the west of Paoking. The new road will not only open up a district of immense importance in itself, but it will be a much-needed means of transporting grain to that part of the province which, being unable to support itself by its own crops, is always most affected in seasons of scarcity.

A great fire broke out on the Bund quite close to the property of Messrs. Butter- field & Swire on October 22nd, 1923, and over 400 houses were destroyed.

The volume of trade passing through the Changsha Custom House for the year 1923 was Hk. Tls. 33,063,924, as compared with Hk. Tls. 29,884,566 in 1922 and Hk. Tls, 29,545,544 in 1921.

The export of coal and coke is becoming an important feature in the trade of the district. The coke, which is said to be of excellent quality, is used almost exclusively by the Hanyang Iron Works; the coal is finding an extending market for bunker use. The colliery is under excellent management, and the supply is said to be a almost limitless.

With its fertile plains, mountains seamed with mineral wealth and clothed with timber, there would seem to be a brilliant future before this province. Until, however, modern machinery is applied, railway communication extended, and capital intro- duced, no great expansion can be anticipated. The climate of Changsha is excellent; there is no great heat, the summer is short, and there is no malaria, the mosquito which propagates the malaria germ not existing here. When the railway is open the s scenery traversed will make this journey the most popular in China.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 986

Comments

Private Research Note