Directory_and_Chronicle_1937 — Page 791

SANTUAO-FOOCHOW

DIRECTORY

A409

關海福 Fu hai Kwan

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

Asst.-in-charge T. Manuel Wong

Assistant -K'o Yu-p'ing

Boat officer-J. E. Read

STANDARD - VACUUM OIL Co.-Cable Ad:

Stand vac

Hsü Pai-hsi, agent

TELEGRAPH OFFICE

Fee Veng Fiang, manager

FOOCHOW

州福 Fuh-chau

Foochow is the capital of Fukien province. It is situated in lat. 26 deg. 20 min. 24 sec. N., and long. 119 deg. 20 min. E. The city is built on a plain on the northern side of the river Min, and is distant about thirty-four miles from the sea, and nine miles from Pagoda Island, where foreign vessels anchor.

The attention of foreigners was early attracted to Foochow as a likely place where commercial intercourse could be profitably carried on in the shipment of Bohea Tea, which is grown largely in the locality. Before the port was opened, this article used to be carried overland to Canton for shipment, a journey which was both long and difficult. The East India Company, as early as 1830, made representations in favour of the opening of the port, but nothing definite was done till the conclusion of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The early years of intercourse with the natives were anything but what was anticipated. The navigation of the river was difficult, there was no market for imports, and several attacks by the populace rendered the port an undesirable place of residence for some time. It was not until some ten years after the port had been opened that there was much done in the export of tea from the interior, but after that the quantity shipped increased largely, and Foochow became one of the principal tea ports in China, From 1880, however, when the tea trade of the port reached its highest figure, the prosperity of the place has gradually waned.

The city is built around three hills, and the circuit of what used to be the walled portion is between six and seven miles in length. The walls were about thirty feet high and twelve feet wide at the top. The streets were narrow and filthy, but during recent years remarkable improvements have been carried out, the walls being torn down and replaced by a wide motor road, the narrow streets have been widened to permit motor traffic. Motor roads have been built and motor buses connect Foochow City with. Nantai, Mamoi (Pagoda), and Amoy. A road is in course of construction from Foochow to Kienow on the Upper Min River, which town is already connected by motor road and bus services with the Chekiang road system and hence with Shanghai.

The climate of Foochow is mild for about nine months of the year, but in the summer it is trying, the range of the thermometer then being from 74 deg. Fahr. to 98 deg. Spring is the wet season, but typhoons lead to rain in the summer and autumn also, and frequent local cyclonic disturbances make it a somewhat damp climate at most times of the year,

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The scenery surrounding Foochow is very beautiful. In sailing up the Min river from the sea vessels have to leave the wide stream and enter what is called the Kimpai Pass, which is barely half-a-mile across, and, enclosed as it is by bold, rocky walls, it presents a very striking appearance. The Pass of Min-ngan is narrower, and with its towering cliffs, surmounted by fortifications and cultivated terraces, is extremely pic- turesque, and has been compared to some of the scenes on the Rhine. The Yung Fu, a