Directory_and_Chronicle_1935 — Page 895

MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU

自 蒙 riêng-s

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.

From

The climate of Yunnanfu (altitude 6,400 feet) is temperate and good. October to April, there is very little rain and a good deal of wind, but in June, July, August and September which is the rainy season the rainfall is about 49 inches in a year of heavy rain, and as low as 24 inches when the rains are poor. When the rainfall is as low as the latter figure, there is a drought and the harvests are poor, and when as the first figure there are floods, and the harvest is similarly poor.

TRADE IN 1933

An upward trend in the trade of the Mengtze district is shown by the following comparative value figures for the years 1932 and 1933: direct foreign imports, 12.6 million dollars as against 8.7 million in 1932; direct exports of Chinese produce to foreign countries, 20.4 million dollars as against 4.9 million; coast wise imports of Chinese produce, 15.7 million dollars for both years; and coastwise exports of Chinese produce, 4.2 million dollars as against 12.6 million, this being the only section of trade to show a decrease for the year. The amount of the increase in the total value ot trade was thus 11 million dollars, or over 26 per cent. It will be noticed that the import and the export accounts, taking the foreign and the domestic transactions together, very nearly balance each other for the year under review. The credit of this fortunate state of things may be placed almost entirely to the success of the tin mines, as more than nine-tenths of the increase in the export trade value figures is accounted for by the improved shipments of tin. There is nothing unreasonable in this, as tin always has been the mainstay of the outward trade from Yunnan, but the exceptional output for the year under review was due to the introduction of up-to-date machinery and smelting methods at the mines, and was a well-earned reward of enterprise, therefore, rather than a haphazard fluctuation in production. The actual quantity of tin exported direct to foreign countries rose from 31,000 piculs in 1932 to 151,900 piculs in the year under review, almost a fivefold increase; and coastwise shipments amounted to 25,000 piculs as against 94,000 piculs in the previous year. The combined exports, abroad and Coastwise, were valued at the not unimposing sum of 22.2 million dollars. The fine new machinery also effected an improvement in quality, and the 99.7 to 99.9 per cent. pure tin being obtained from the smelters at these mines is now quoted on the London, Paris, and New York markets, so that orders can be placed direct with the producers. The ore was formerly refined at Hongkong. Medicinal substanees, hides, and skins were other export staples to do well, and it may be noticed in connection with the changes in trade routes now being brought about by the building of new lines of com- munication, that while some of Kweichow trade now tends to find its outlet through Kwangsi instead of Yunnan owing to the development of the Kweichow-Kwangsi road ystem, certain produce from the borders of Tibet, Szechwan, and Kweichow that used o go out through Chungking now tends to gravitate toward Yunnanfu for export on ecount of the better road transport now existing in this province also.