Directory_and_Chronicle_1933 — Page 546

CHA

DYMUW

ref..o'z

}

J

2. bus

1 }

!·

MUKDEN

★

Feng-tien

(Makden is the Manchu name)

..... Mukden, is the capital of the province of Fêng-t'ien (F). It was the ancient seat of the last dynasty of China. Though nominally opened to international residence and trade by the Commercial Treaties concluded by the United States and Japan with China in 1903, it was not really opened until 1906, for in the Russo-Japanese war the city became one of the strongholds of the Russian forces, from which, however, they were eventually driven by the advancing Japanese army after one of the most decisive battles of those times. When peace was concluded and the troops were withdrawn the trade possibilities of the province began to receive increased attention, The principal trade of Mukder has been ingrain, such as beans and millet; there is, also, a considerable trade in skins, furs and bristles. The chief imports are Japanese and European textiles, hardware, cigarettes, sugar and kerosene oil. The British Cigarette Co. and the Toa Tobacco Co. have opened cigarette factories in the International Settlement, and there is a successful cotton-mill, with a capital of $2,500,000, subscribed partly from official funds and partly by private individuals. Minerals and metals are mined and smelted in the neighbourhood of Mukden. An increase in the area under beet cultivation is reported, but these crops suffered badly in 1923, and the working of the local Sugar Refining Company was curtailed in consequence. Rice-farming, also, is on the increase, there being some 10,000 acres under cultivation in the Mukden and Sinmin districts. The requirements of the local cotton mill have given an impetus to the growing of cotton in the Liaoyang and Chinhsien districts.

:

•

Mukden is situated in slightly undulating country a few miles north of the Hunho, a tributary of the river Liao, about 110 miles north-east of the port of Newchwang, and has stations on the South Manchuria and other Railways. The city stands four square, each side being 2,334 li long, but it is not absolutely north and south. It is walled The inner town, which is nearly a mile square, is protected by a stone wall 35 feet high and 15 feet wide on the top, pierced by eight gates, two on each side, which formerly had high towers above them, but only the one over the "Little West Gate" now remains, and the inner face of the wall is greatly dilapidated. A smaller wall encloses the ancient palace, which stands in the centre of the inner city, like the palace at Peiping. There are four main streets, which cross east and west, north and south, from gate to gate. Mukden has four railway stations. Adjoining the station of the South Manchuria Railway is the large Japanese Railway Settlement, which was taken over from the Russians after the war. The total area of this Settle- ment is over 2,000 acres, and it has been developed of late years into a town of spacious squares and wide streets. East of the Japanese Settement is the Settlement set aside for the foreign residential and business quarter. Most of the big yamên and Govern- ment buildings were erected in 1908. Throughout the city a great deal of building has been going on during recent years and the main roads have been macadamized. In 1920 new houses were built by the Standard Oil Co., the British-American Tobacco Co., and the Banque Industrielle de Chine. Actually miles of new houses-good-looking red-brick structures are springing up, and the Railway Settlement is fast being linked up with the Chinese business quarter. The North Eastern University, occupying a site to the south-east of the Imperial North Tomb was completed and opened in 1926. Important shops and banks are, situated both in the Japanese Railway Settlement and between that Settlement and the walled city. The whole of the main streets were reconstructed and re-metalled during 1907-08. The streets and shops are lighted by electricity, the use of which has spread with remarkable rapidity. The Mukden Electric Light Works completed in 1930 the installation of a new 2,500 k.w. plant, which practically doubled its capacity and is now contemplating further additions. On December 1st, 1920, a long-distance Japanese telephone service was inaugurated between Mukden, Antung and Changchun, and there is now a service between Mukden and Peiping and Mukden and Harbin. Since September, 1931, the Chinese population of Mukden has considerably decreased, while the Japanese has increased.

**I