Directory_and_Chronicle_1936 — Page 885

PAKHOI

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Extending to the south and east is a plain which is level for many miles, although the country gradually rises towards the north. Attempts at cultivation have been made upon this plain immediately to the south of the town, but with varying success. Very rough cart roads intersect the country in-the vicinity of the port and are utilized for bringing in some of the produce from the surrounding district. The carts in use for this purpose are heavy, unwieldy vehicles of an almost pre-historic type. They are drawn largely by oxen and have huge, solid wooden wheels of the most primitive pattern, by which, needless to say, the roads are badly cut up in wet weather. During the past two years an extensive road building programme has been carried out and there is now a motor service between Pakhoi and Limchow (H), Limchow and Shekhong (), and Limchow and Paksha (ZĖ). Another service connects Pakhoi with the large trade mart of Nanhong (). A bridge has finally been erected across the Paksha River which connects Pakhoi by motor road with Kwangchowwan, a distance of 180 miles. Sportsmen will find the following game in the vicinity of Pakhoi: quails, snipe, partridges, wild pigeons, wild ducks, and some- woodcocks and pheasants. Tigers can still be found in the hills, some 25 miles to the N.E. of Limchow. Good cross-country riding is obtainable. The Pakhoi-Limehow motor-road is being kept in an excellent condition, and the pleasure of cycling and motor-cycling is afforded. The climate of the port during at least six months of the year is a trying one for Europeans, though the nights are, for the tropics, com paratively cool. It is satisfactory to be able to state that the question of sanitation is receiving increasing attention as the modernisation of the town progresses. Accurate figures for the population of the town, as elsewhere in China, are difficult to obtain, but the number of inhabitants may perhaps be put at some 35,000. Fishing is one of the most important of the local industries, and a large number of vessels are employed in it. The manganese ore mines in the district of Ch'inchów (Yamchow k) have developed a great deal of late years, and the export of this minera through Pakhoi increases from year to year.

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TRADE IN 1934

Trade of Pakhoi took much the same course as the other ports in Kwangtung during the year under review, being influenced in general by the provincial government's restrictions on imports from abroad (in addition to the high tariff uniformly applicable at all ports in China) and also, in the way of local conditions, by the extensive smuggling through the territory of Kwangchowwan and the adverse effect on the market of the dearth of silver coins, the high prices obtainable for silver having led to the illicit exodus of coins from the district. The statistics for the port were as follows, according to value: direct foreign imports, 1.6 million dollars as against 3.4 million in the preceding year; coastwise importations of Chinese merchandise, .3.6 million dollars as against 3 million; direct exportations to foreign countries, 3.5 million dollars as against 4.4 million; and coastwise exportations of Chinese merchandise. 3.5 million dollars as against 1.9 million dollars. It will be seen that transactions. in Chinese merchandise improved at the expenses of the foreign trade-a change for the better in the case of imports, Again it may be noted, in comparing Pakhoi with other Kwangtung ports, that much of the 53 per cent. decline in the value of the inward movement of foreign goods was due to a severe curtailment of the purchases of rice, wheat flour, kerosene, and cement. The following staples of the port contributed largely to the 20 per cent, decline recorded for the value of exports to foreign countries; pigs, poultry, fishery products, aniseed star, cassia lignea, groundnut oil, wood oil, rush mats, and garlic. The manganese ore mines near Yanchow have ceased operations, and some 3,000 tons of the mineral remain unsold at Pakhoi. The port has been brought into closer touch with Mowming, Kiungchow, and Canton by the inauguration during the year under review of a regular airway service between these cities.

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