Directory_and_Chronicle_1936 — Page 802

CHUNGKING

慶重 Chung-king

The city of Chungking, situated in lat. 29 deg. 33 min. 56 sec. N., long, 106 deg. 30 min. E., may well be described as not only the commercial capital of Szechuen but of the whole of Western China. The foreign import trade centres here, and is then distributed by a smaller class of trading junks up the various rivers of the province.

The city occupies the end of a high and rocky bluff forming a peninsula, at the junction of the river Kia-ling with the Yangtsze, 1,400 miles from the mouth of the latter. The principal streets of the city, in which are many fine shops, are on the side of the Yangtsze, while a new malu has now been driven right through the heart of the city work still continuing upon it in different directions, and out by way of the Tung Yuan Gate, where it merges with the new Great East Road to Chengtu, over 285 miles distant, which has been completed and is open to traffic. The city is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall which is some five miles in circumference, pierced with nine gates. This wall was built in 1761, replacing an older one. Part of Chungking is now electrically lighted, the service being now controlled by the Municipality. The climate of Chungking is depressing, the summer being hot and damp, the winters raw and chilly, with thick fogs from November to March. The ordinary rise of the river is about 75 feet; on 6th August, 1898, it rose to 101 ft., on 11th August, 1905, to 108 ft., on 22nd July, 1920, to 95 ft. 2 in., on 14th July, 1921, to 100 ft. and 90 ft. at the beginning of August 1931. In 1908 it only attained a height of 52 feet 4 inches. According to a Chinese report, the river rose 120 feet in 1878. On the left bank of the Kialing and facing Chungking, extending below the junction of the two rivers, is the walled city formerly styled Kiangpei Ting and now known as Kiangpei Hsien. It is proposed eventually to connect the two towns by a steel bridge. These two cities and the large villages in their immediate neighbourhood are estimated to contain a population of about 700,000.

¿

The port was declared open to foreign trade in 1891, since which date a large trade has been done both in imports and exports, carried at first in foreign chartered junks, but for the last ten years in steam and motor vessels.

TRADE IN 1934

The Commissioner of Customs at Chungking reports that the period under review was one of the most difficult ever experienced by traders in the West Coast province of Szechwan. Failures were many, and those escaping absolute insolvency were well contented just to be able to maintain the existence of their establishments- pending the return of more prosperous times. The following were the value statistics for the port direct foreign imports, 2.4 million dollars as against 2.2 million in the previous year; coastwise importation of Chinese products, 27.4 million dollars, as against 39 million in the preceding year (a 30 per cent, decrease); direct exports to foreign countries (almost exclusively postal parcel traffic), 78,000 dollars as against 30,000 dollars; and, coast wise exportations of Chinese merchandise, 27.1 million dollars as against 30.7 million dollars (a 12 per cent. decrease). The total value of trade under the above headings (which, however, by no means cover the whole trade of the port), therefore, declined by some 21 per cent. in comparison with the figures for the previous year, notwithstanding the fact that the recorded values were enhanced in the case of imports by the abnormally high exchange rates between Chungking and and Shanghai. Of the usual export staples some of those classified locally as mountain products" did better than in 1933: these included bristles, nutgalls, buffaly and cow hides, dyestuffs, rhubarb, sheep's wool, black fungus, grasscloth (in quantito but not in value), salted vegetables, and pig's intestines. The considerable improve- ment exhibited by these products, however, were in sufficient to offset the losses under many of the principal export commodities, such as raw silk, the production of