Directory_and_Chronicle_1928 — Page 591

Directories & Chronicles 香港指南 All

CHEFOO

601

breakwater in 1915. Further harbour improvement works were completed in 1921 the new breakwater, mole and quay being formally inaugurated on September 14th,. 1921. The break water is 2,600 feet long, the height from the base of the foundation mound to the top of the parapet is 51 feet, and the width of the base of the foundation. mound ranges from 117 feet to 133 feet. A railway track has been laid over the mole. In September, 1921, great damage was done to the Bund along the east beach by a storm of unusual violence accompanied by spring tides.

It was always intended that the Chefoo-Huanghsien-Weihsien railway should proceed pari passu with the breakwater. The outbreak of war, however, brought negotiations to a standstill. Another pressing need in Chefoo is a good water supply. The Chefoo-Weihsien motor road was opened to traffic in 1923 and,. although very unsatisfactorily metalled, is nevertheless very popular.

An enterprise was established a few years ago by a wine company of sub- stantial standing; the soil of the locality lends itself to such an industry. Chefoo is noted for its large and increasing fruit-growing industry, supplying Shanghai, Vladivostock, Kobe and other Eastern ports with foreign fruits, which grow well with care and attention in that part of Shantung-the native fruit-growers having received foreign instruction-so that which was at first a hobby is now a paying industry. Other very important industries are the manufacture of foreign silk and hand-made silk laces, which in the hands of foreigners promise to assume large proportions. Silk thread and silk twist are largely made and exported from here to France and America. Chefoo uses a large percentage of the cocoons from Korea and Manchuria that come to China. The port was connected in 1900 by telegraph cables with Tientsin, Port Arthur, Weihaiwei, Tsingtao and Shanghai.

The net value of the trade of the port for 1926 was Hk. Tls. 34,335,785, as compared with Hk. Tls. 33,448,204 in 1925, Hk. Tls. 32,115,044 in 1924, and Hk. Tls. 44,524,148. in 1923.

Chefoo is two days' journey from Shanghai, and communication is maintained by the Indo-China Steam Navigation Co., the China Merchants' S. N. Co., and the China. Navigation Co. Chefoo is an important port of call for large numbers of regular line and tramp steamers, being in the line of communication between Indian, South China, Japanese, Korean and Manchurian ports and the ports in the north. During the season from March to December as many as 20 to 30 steamers per day often enter and clear the port. The port supplies Vladivostock and Siberia with upwards of 100,000- coolies annually; the coolies leave for Vladivostock during the spring months, and those returning reach Chefoo in the latter part of the year. This movement of coolies furnishes business for numbers of steamers.

Directory_and_Chronicle_1928 — Page 591

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