Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/821



MOY, the more southerly of the two ports in the province of Fokien, lies in lat. N. 24° 27', long. E.G. 118° 5'. Fokien, the area of which is about 46,000 square miles, with an estimated population of some twenty-five millions, is almost wholly mountainous. In the southern portion which constitutes the Amoy hinterland, range supervenes upon range, with here and there patches of fertile valley; the rivers are shallow, and impeded by rapids; the valleys are difficult of access, and produce but a bare livelihood for the inhabitants, who, reported to be the rudest and least cultivated of all the peoples in China, are largely constrained to better their condition by emigration. The sea-coast of rugged granite rocks is fringed with islands and deeply indented with numerous bays, bights, and inlets. At the head of these inlets are to be found the principal cities and the mouths of the chief rivers.

The island of Amoy lies in a large shallow bay, the extremities of which are Huithau Point on the north-east, and Tinhai Point on the south-west. The island of Quemoy and a chain of islets form a breakwater across the mouth of the bay, and serve as an effective protection against the heavy seas of the Formosa Channel. The Dodd Island and Chapel Island lights mark the approach of the port, and at the southern entrance to the harbour stand the Taitan and Tsingseu Lighthouses.

The advantages of the situation of Amoy as a shipping centre are manifest. It has a good deep-water harbour, easy of access at all states of the tide; it has well-lighted approaches, and fair docking facilities; it is the natural mainland port for the trade with Formosa and the Philippines, and it lies conveniently situated between the great ports of Hongkong and Shanghai.

The city of Amoy is placed on the south-western corner of the island, and is politically in the district of T'ung-an and the prefecture of Ch'üanchow-fu (Chinchew). It consists of an inner citadel of small extent, surrounded by a decrepit wall standing in the midst of thickly populated suburbs, which stretch along the sea-shore to the south-west as far as the forts and the parade-ground (and foreigners' racecourse), which lie near the village of Ê-mñg-kang. The entire circuit of the city and suburbs is about eight miles. The population is usually put down at 114,000, and that of the rest of the island at about 100,000 more.

The town fronts the narrow strait, seven to eight hundred yards in width, which divides it from Kulangsu—the small island on which foreigners reside, and, since 1903, an international settlement under the governance of a Municipal Council. This strait, though narrow for vessels of great length, gives safe and commodious anchorage to ordinary coasting steamers and constitutes the inner harbour. Large ocean-going ships and men-of-war are usually berthed either at the north or south end of Kulangsu, in either of which places they can find good anchorage. On the Amoy side lies the British Concession,