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CHAPTEE XX. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



NINGPO: Ancient and Modern. 



By The Venerable Aechdeacon Moule, B.D. 



THE " City of the Peaceful Wave " leads us by its historical documents and legends far 

 back into the earlier ages of the world, and touches itself, or by its environments, some 

 of the most stirring events of China's modern history. 



Its situation is almost ideally perfect for commerce in peace and for defence in 

 war; if only we could dispense with the troublesome and merciless instruments of 

 modern warfare. The Chinese have a saying which contains sober sense in its bombastic 

 language : — 



" Traverse the whole wide earth and after all 

 What find you to compare with Ningpo's river-hall ?" 



The city lies at the junction of the two branches of the river Yung. The south-west 

 branch rises in the heart of the Funghwa mountains and in the direction of the Snowy 

 Valley, and waters a large part of Ningpo's rich plain. The north-west branch rises near 

 the shores of the Dzaongo river and bears in its higher branches the names of China's 

 primitive Emperors Yao and Shun : and passing the busy city of Yuyao and the sleepy city 

 of Tszechi brings down large wealth of inland commerce, and carries on its bosom great 

 numbers of travellers. 



Both branches are traversed now by steam-launches, the service on the Yuyao river 

 being regular and the boats crowded with passengers. The two branches join near the 

 east gate of the city and flow in one broad and winding stream twelve miles to the sea at 

 Chinhai. The trade which centres at Ningpo, and radiates from it northwards to Shanghai 

 and up the Yangtze, and to the northern ports and southwards along the coast, and inland 

 to Shaouhing and Hangchow and beyond, is very large indeed ; and though foreign trade is 

 not nearly what it was forty years ago, the native trade is steadily growing and developing. 



