Directory_and_Chronicle_1928 — Page 521

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TIENTSIN

津天 Tien-tsin

Tientsin-or the Ford of Heaven, according to the Chinese meaning of its name- may now well be called the commercial capital of North China. Situated at the junc- tion of the Grand Canal and the Pei Ho in Lat. 39 deg. 4 min. N., Long. 117 deg. 4 min. E. (approx.), it is some 80 miles distant from Peking by road and somewhat further by river. Railway connection with the capital was established in 1897. A road between the two places, 94 miles long, was completed towards the end of 1922, and communica- tion was further facilitated by the inauguration of a wireless telephone service on March 7th of that year. The expeditions of the Allies in 1858-61 greatly enhanced the importance of the city, as it then proved to be the military key of the capital and an excellent base. It was here on June 26th, 1858, that Lord Elgin signed the treaty which was to conclude the war, but which unhappily led to its prolongation. The famous temple in which the treaty was signed, about a mile distant from the West gate, was destroyed by British shells in July, 1900.

Tientsin owes its early importance to its location at the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, and its later development is mainly due to the opening up of North China to foreign trade, to improved railway communications with the Interior, and to the deepening of the Bar and the Hai Ho by the Hai Ho Conservancy Board. Before the advent of steamers, however, Tientsin had become a flourishing centre for junk traffic, and when the tribute rice no longer followed the Grand Canal route-owing to the shoaling of this ancient and celebrated waterway-it was sent to Tientsin in sea-going junks when following the downfall of the Manchu dynasty in 1912, the transportation of this commodity ceased altogether. It may be mentioned here that a Commission, composed of Chinese and foreign engineers, has been established to draw up plans for the improvement of the Grand Canal, and hopes are enter- tained that this waterway will ultimately be restored to something like its former usefulness. While it is improbable that it will ever again be used for through traffic from the Yangtsze it will doubtless serve a very useful purpose as a means of com- munication between many busy trading centres in this Province and Tientsin. The natural expansion of trade to be expected from Tientsin's unique position as the distributing centre of North China has been arrested from time to time by the defective communications with the sea; both the Hai Ho and the Taku Bar have stood in the way of development and limited the carrying trade of the port to light-draught steamers. There are now, however, frequent sailings between here and Japan.

Early in September, 1917, the Hunho was in flood, and, finally, the Grand Canal burst its banks a few miles west of Tientsin, carrying away the main line of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, which resulted in the Concessions being flooded before much warning of the impending danger could be given. The Municipal authorities of the various Concessions dealt with the problem in a prompt and public-spirited manner, and it was ultimately decided to enclose the submerged Concessions with a dyke and pump out the flood waters therefrom. The lengths of the various dykes in miles were approximately as follows:-Chinese (ex-German) 0.47; British, 1.40; French and British, 0.87; French, 0.32; Japanese, 2.27; total, 5.33 miles. Powerful pumps were then erected, and the whole undertaking for the British and French Concessions was successfully and expeditiously completed in a fortnight. It took longer to clear the Japanese Concession, however, where the water was from 7 to 10 feet deep in places. It is estimated that over 15,000 square miles of the most populous part of the Chihli province between Paotingfu and Tientsin were flooded, and it has been calculated that crops to the value of $100,000,000 were utterly lost, and that 80,000 groups of dwellings, ranging from hamlets to large villages, were destroyed.

In 1924 unprecedentedly heavy rains in the hinterland caused a very severe flood in the district between Paotingfu, Peking and Tientsin, though fortunately both these latter towns escaped.

The question of conserving the waterways of the Chihli province, with a view to preventing a recurrence of the disasters experienced in the past and safeguarding the