104 



CHINA. 



the place where the foreign establishments 

 have made their settlement is Jen-Hai, where 

 there is a small town of about 10,000 inhabit- 

 ants. The province of Chan-Tung is the most 

 fertile of the northern provinces of China, 

 From the south to the north it is bisected by 

 the Great Canal. Its products are cereals, to- 

 bacco, beans, peas, oil, cotton, drugs, raw silk, 

 etc., minerals of various kinds, and lead and 

 coal in great quantities, the latter especially, 

 near the city of Che-Foo. This is the only 

 harbor on the gulf of Pe-chee-lee which remains 

 open throughout the winter. The chief means 

 of transport on this road are mules and cam- 

 els, but a large part of the trade is also carried 

 on by the way of the river Ta-Tsing, which 

 empties into the gulf of Pe-chee-lee at Che-Foo. 

 Foreign trade is rapidly increasing, and it ap- 

 pears that here, more than in many other 

 places in the empire, a neighborly intercourse 

 between the resident foreigners and the Chi- 

 nese exists, since the latter are building their 

 houses arid magazines without reserve among 

 and around the residences and warerooms of 

 the Europeans. 



10. Win- Chang. This is the only open 

 port, included in the treaty of Tien-Tsin of 

 1860, which is situated beyond the limits of 

 China Proper. It is located on ' the coast 

 of Mantchooria, in the province of Tung-Tien. 

 The foreign colonists have settled not at Nin- 

 Chang, but at the mouth of the river Lian, on 

 the gulf of Lian-Tung, which is connected by 

 a channel with the gulf of Pe-chee-lee. The 

 city of Nin-Chang is thirty miles from this 

 foreign settlement. Farther in the interior is 

 the capital of the province, the city Muk-Den, 

 the chief centre of thetrade of Mantchooria with 

 China. The colony of foreigners is yet but 

 small, as, at the close of 1866, there were but 

 one American, two English, and one German 

 firm established. The country around Nin- 

 Chang is low and open, but well tilled and 

 dotted with villages and dwellings. The chief 

 products are hemp, corn, cotton, beans, peas, 

 ginseng, drugs, horns, camel-hair, etc. In 

 the winter, when field-work is impossible, the 

 people form into large caravans and transport 

 the fruit of their summer's toil on carts farther 

 south. 



11. Ta-Kow and Tai- Wan-Foo. These places 

 are situated on the island of Formosa, and, 

 though at a distance of twenty-five miles, they 

 are in fact but one port. Tai- Wan-Foo is the 

 principal city of the department of Formosa, 

 on the western coast of the island, and con- 

 tains 100,000 inhabitants. It maintains a very 

 extensive trade in junks, but, as its open roads 

 protect the shipping only from northern winds, 

 foreign vessels come to anchor at Ta-Kow, far- 

 ther south, which was opened in 1864. The 

 harbor is a good one, but small, and at its 

 entrance is a bar with but seventeen feet of 

 water at ebb tide. Ta-Kow is but an insignifi- 

 cant place, and the foreign settlement is also 

 very small, but the Roman Catholics have a 



mission there, consisting of monks of the Do- 

 minican order. Sugar, rice, oil, hemp, salt, etc., 

 constitute the principal products of the island. 

 The climate is very warm, but healthy. 



12. Nanking and Kiung-Cliow. According 

 to the treaties, the cities of Nanking, on the 

 river Yang-tse-Kiang, and of Kiung-Chow, on 

 the island of Hai-Nan, were also to be opened 

 to foreign commerce; but the very limited 

 commercial importance of these places has de- 

 cided differently. Nanking, the former capital 

 of China, was for over ten years (1853-1864) 

 in the possession of the Taepings. Since the 

 recapture of this city, in 1864, the Imperial 

 Government made Nankin the capital of the 

 province of Kiang-Nin and the residence of 

 the viceroy of both the Kiangs. Every effort 

 was made to induce the former inhabitants to 

 return, but the progress is so slow that many 

 years will pass before this city, once the chief 

 of all the cities of China, can again be said to be 

 on the road to future prosperity and greatness. 



13. Hong-Kong. The island which bears 

 this name has a circuit of from twenty-six to 

 twenty-seven miles, is very mountainous, and 

 contained, in 1842, when it was ceded to Eng- 

 land, only a few villages of Chinese fishermen. 

 To-day the beautiful city of Victoria, on the 

 northern shore, opposite the bay of Hong- 

 Kong, rises amphitheatrically along the moun- 

 tains, into the rocks of which the streets have 

 been hewn. Indeed, the building of the city 

 is in itself one of the wonders of the age. 

 There are steam lines connecting with New 

 York by way of San Francisco, and also by 

 Panama; with Europe, by way of the Eed 

 Sea and the Isthmus of Suez ; with Australia, 

 by Japan ; with Canton, Macao, S watow, Amoy, 

 Foo-Chow, Shanghai, Manila, and with Singa- 

 pore, Calcutta, and Bombay. 



The people of China are becoming alive to 

 the advantages of steam, and the steamboats 

 of the Yang-tse are freighted by native mer- 

 chants and loaded with native passengers, and 

 will soon bo owned and managed by native 

 owners. The building of junks has nearly 

 ceased, and, as the steamboat comes along, the 

 . junks will disappear. The Yangtse is equal 

 to the Mississippi in extent, in climate, in re- 

 sources, and has the immeasurable advantage 

 of having over 150,000,000 of industrious and 

 productive people near its navigable waters. 

 The Upper Yang-tse is in the same condition 

 that the Upper Mississippi and the Upper Mis- 

 souri were before steamboats had penetrated 

 their waters, except that this region has the 

 advantage of a redundant population. 



The transportation by steam upon the 

 Yang-tse is exclusively in the hands of a com- 

 pany organized in China as the "Shanghai 

 Steam Navigation Company." The service is 

 performed at present by six large river steam- 

 ers, and the trade must be very lucrative, as 

 they have been able in a very few years to 

 pay for the steamers, declare a stock-dividend 

 of fifty per cent., and earn annually about 



