Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 933

LUNGCHOW-MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

A519

DIRECTORY

BIBLE CHURCH MEN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY FRENCH HOSPITAL

關州龍 Lung chow kuan

Assistant-in-charge-Chan Shao

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

Clerk-Ho Shun Kin

FRENCH CONSULATE- Cable Ad: Fransulat,

Longtcheou

P. A. Simon, Consul for Longtcheou

Dr. Ch'en Ting-wok

郵等二州龍

POST OFFICE (CHINESE)

Officer-in-charge-Tong Hung Ngan

ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION

& Nanning

with residence in

Longtcheou

Rev. Father G. P. Caysac, Societe des

Mission Etrangeres de Paris

J. V. F. Tseng, Chinese Clerk

MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

自蒙 Mêng-is

This is a district city in south east Yunnan, and together with Man-hao, a village on the left bank of the Red River, was opened to trade by the Additional Convention to the French Treaty of Tientsin of the 25th April, 1886, signed at Peking on the 26th June, 1887. The town is two days' journey from Man-hao and about six days' from the frontier of Tonkin at Laokay, and beautifully situated, being built on a cultivated plateau 20 miles long by about 12 miles in breadth, encircled by picturesque mountains, and is 4,280 feet above the level of the sea. "It has a Chinese population of 150,000, but was a place of much more importance before the Mahommedan rebellion, as the numerous well-built temples, many of them now in ruins, still testify. It is, however, a considerable commercial emporium even now, and is becoming an important centre for the distribution of foreign goods imported via Tonkin. The French Consul hoisted his flag at Mêngtsz on the 30th April, 1889, and the Customs station was opened in the following August.

TRADE IN 1932

Mengtsz had been ceasing to be the commercial emporium of East Yunnan for some time prior to 1932, but the removal of the head office of the Maritime Customs from Mengtsz to Yunnanfu on January 1st, 1932, was the final blow to Mengtsz' pre- tentions to be the trade mart of Yunnan. Yunnanfu at the head of the Tonkin- Yunnanfu railway is now the distributing centre for Yunnan, and all the principal merchants have their main offices there. At Yunnanfu, are the Consulate-General of Great Britain, the Consulate and Delegation of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Consulate of the United States of America. The German Consulate was closed some time ago, and the Japanese Consulate was closed at the beginning of the Japanese boycott in 1931 (September).

In Yunnan province, the bandit scourge which was worst perhaps in the South and East of the province, has been consistently and drastically removed under com- petent direction of General Lung Yun's lieutenants. To-day, one can say that it is safe to move about the province-a thing which three years ago was quite impossible.

The Japanese boycott has almost entirely eliminated the Japanese trade in this province, and its place has been taken by Chinese cotton goods and cotton yarns from Shanghai, as well as some British and Indian goods.