Directory_and_Chronicle_1938 — Page 811

FOOCHOW

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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 now marly constructed 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.

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 tributary of the Min, also affords some charming scenery, the hills rising very abruptly from the river bank. The Min Monastery, the Moon Temple, and the Kushan Monastery, all occupying most romantic and beautiful sites, are fine specimens of Chinese religious edifices, and are much resorted to by visitors. Game abounds in all the. ravines and mountains in the vicinity of Foochow, while tigers and panthers are common in the more. remote hills, and some of these beasts have been killed within ten miles of the city.

Most foreign vessels were compelled to anchor at Pagoda Anchorage owing to the shallowness of the river above that point. The limits of the port of Foochow extend from the City Bridge to the Kimpai Pass. The Min River Conservancy have, however, forseveral years been engaged in dredging and draining the river which is now nav igable for vessels not exceeding 15 feet in draught and 265 feet in length right up to the City Bridge. Consequently since 1934 some small coasting vessels from Shanghai have regularly steamed right up to Foochow.

الحمد

There is a Government Naval. Yard at Mamoi, with a dock over 300 feet long. The establishment includes a training college for naval cadets with British instructors.

The population of Foochow, comprising Foochow City and the suburbs of Nantai on the banks of the Min River, amounts to 357, 790 persons (Police census, July 1935).

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TRADE IN 1936

Despite a heavy fall in direct imports from abroad, a very satisfactory year was experienced in the Foochow district. Comparative value statistics of the trade of the port for the years 1935 and 1936 are as follows; direct imports from abroad, $5.2 million as compared with $6.8 million in 1935; coastwise imports of Chinese goods,. $21.6 million as against $19.8 million; direct exports to foreign countries, $4.4 million as compared with $3.5 million; and coastwise exports of Chinese produce, $20.2 million as against $14.2 million. The chief cause of the fall in direct foreign imports and the substantial rise in exports abroad was doubtless to be found in the reduced foreign exchange value of the standard dollar as compared with that of the previous year. The standard of life of the inhabitants of the district is governed principally by the success or otherwise of the rice harvest. Failure necessitates heavy rice and paddy imports from abroad and from other Chinese ports, while snccess permits a larger consumption of other cominodities. Severe floods in April and May imperilled the first crop, but fortunately the weather cleared and an excellent harvest was gathered in July. Again, in the early autumn a prolonged dry spell threatened disaster, but weather conditions improved, and the second crop, harvested in October, was also excellent. The value of foreign rice and paddy imported fell from $1,850,135 in 1935 to $150,403 in 1936, while imports from Chinese ports were valued at $228,905 as compared with $123,010. Imports from abroad of wheat continued to decline. The more prosperous state of the interior resulted in a larger consumption of kerosene oil, which during bad times is generally replaced as an illuminent by bean oil. Sales of gasolene continued to increase with the extension of the road system, Smuggling of

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