Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/822

814 marked by its bund, backed by the row of foreign hongs. This is the principal business quarter of the town, where the foreign trade is carried on, and near which are located the establishments of the leading Chinese merchants. The bulk of the foreign residents cross the harbour daily from their homes in Kulangsu to their offices in Amoy. Kulangsu is almost entirely a residential quarter; the only offices to be found there, besides a foreign store or two, are the various Consulates with their post offices, the Municipal Council office, and the foreign telegraph and telephone companies' agencies.

Amoy Island is about 35 miles in circumference and 10 miles in width. It would be somewhat circular in shape but for the large indentation on the western side, known to foreigners as the Dock Creek, which almost cuts the island in two. A range of granite hills, covered with large boulders poised in fantastic positions, extends along the southern and western sides. At intervals the hills fall back from the sea, leaving a small area of level land which is laid out in fields and dotted with villages. The north and east portions of the island are a flat plain, highly cultivated and thickly populated, the chief productions being sweet potatoes, rice, wheat, ground-nuts, and garden vegetables. A remarkable feature of Amoy is the vast number of graves it contains. The hillsides nearest the city are in some cases almost faced with solid masonry, so closely placed together are the "chunam"-covered tombs, while all over the island graves stud every mound and hill, making one gigantic cemetery of it. The hills behind the town are dotted here and there with temples, often placed in extremely picturesque situations. These form favourite places of resort, not only for natives, but also for foreigners on pleasure bent, who frequently use them for picnics. The appearance of the harbour as it is approached from the sea is one of considerable beauty. The rugged islands, the rocky hills, the blue water, and the pretty island of Kulangsu with its buildings coloured as in a southern European town, combine to make an attractive picture.

Amoy is the port of foreign trade for South Fokien, a region which, though politically and administratively united with the northern half of the province of Fokien, is geographically and ethnologically distinct. Shut off from the other portion of the province and the rest of China by high mountain ranges, the inhabitants of what might be called the Amoy district have always preserved their distinctive peculiarities. Isolated from the interior of their country, their trend for many centuries has been seawards towards Formosa, the Philippine Islands, and the countries of the Malay Archipelago. It is not easy to define exactly in what the Amoy district consists. It is supposed that some ten millions speak the language of Amoy and its subordinate dialects. But the interior of the province is not well known, or, at least, has been but little written about. The whole region is mountainous and inaccessible, and the clan system, which still prevails in its full strength with its perpetual conflicts, has prevented the cohesion of the people. The precise limits within which each dialect is spoken are not known, and possibly on the southern and western borders we may pass into populations which have as little in common with the men of Amoy as the latter have with the people of Foochow. But, roughly speaking, we may take the six southern prefectures or departments of Fokien as forming the district served by Amoy, and as containing populations which are sufficiently nearly related in race, customs, and speech to be considered as one people. These departments are Hsinghua-fu (locally Henghòa), Ch'üanchow-fu (Chinchew), and Changchow-fu (Chiangchiu) on the seaboard; and Yungch'un-chow (Engchhun) Lungyen-chow (Lêngnâ), and Tingchow-fu (Thengchiu) inland. Of these Amoy is principally concerned with the prefectures nearest to the port—Chôanchiu, in which Amoy is situated, and Chiangchiu; or, to give them the names by which they are more commonly called, after their capital cities, Chinchew and Changchow. These two divisions contain together some 8,000 to 10,000 square miles of territory, and a population which is quite unknown, but may be guessed to be somewhere between two and three millions. The city of Changchow is distant some 35 miles to the westward of Amoy, and the Lung-Kiang, the river on which it stands, pours into an inlet at the head of the bay in which the island is located. A short distance to the north there is another inlet leading to Anhai, which is the landing place for the journey to Chinchew, which lies some 40 miles beyond, or 60 miles from Amoy. Amoy is the port for these large cities; it furnishes them with their foreign supplies, and ships away their productions.

The chief Chinese official in Amoy is the Taoutai or Intendent of Circuit. His jurisdiction comprises the three prefectures of Hsinghua, Ch'üan-chow, and Yungch'un, and he resides in Amoy. The only other civil official of standing is the "hai-fang-t'ing" or maritime sub-prefect, who is the magistrate of the island. The "t'i-t'u," or provincial commander-in-chief of Fokien, has his station on Amoy, He is supposed to combine military and naval functions, and is posted here presumably on account of the former military importance of the port with reference to Formosa, but his duties nowadays are mostly connected with the suppression of revolutionaries and clan-fighters.

Kulangsu is under the control of a Municipal Council, consisting of six foreign and one Chinese member, the former elected by the foreign ratepayers, the latter nominated by the Taoutai. The constitution of the Council and the government of the island are based upon the "Land regulations for the settlement of Kulangsu, Amoy," approved by the Foreign Ministers and accepted by the Chinese Government in 1902. The island became an international settlement under the control of the Council on May 1, 1903. There is a Mixed Court Magistrate, appointed by the Chinese authorities, who deals with charges brought by the Council or others against Chinese on the island, while foreign offenders are dealt with by their own Consuls. The Council employs a foreign superintendent of police, who is also secretary to the Council, and a small force of Sikh police. Under this management the island has made progress in many ways, and has become the place of residence, in addition to the foreigners, of a number of wealthy Chinese, who have bought or built foreign houses there.

Like Kulangsu, the British Concession on Amoy has its Municipal Council, consisting of five members elected from the lot holders, who hold their land from the British Government, which rents the whole Concession from the Chinese Government. There is a British inspector of police and a small force of Chinese constables.

The climate of Amoy is, for its latitude, a mild and agreeable one. It was remarked in 1871 by Dr. (now Sir) Patrick Manson, then medical officer in Amoy:—"For Europeans, as they are now housed, the climate cannot be considered unhealthy. Their places of business and a few of their residences are situated along the foreshore of the town—rather a hot locality—but for the most part they have their private houses on Kulangsu. &hellip; In the summer they have the full benefit of the strong sea-breezes blowing during the greater part of the day, and of the land winds at night. &hellip; Did the residents display as much wisdom in the furnishing of their tables as they have in the building of their houses, they might live as comfortably here—as far as health is concerned—for eight or ten years, as they could in Europe." Since these words were written, the value of hygiene and clean living has come to be more realised in China, as elsewhere; and were Sir Patrick to revisit Amoy he would probably not find much cause for animadversion. The year divides about equally into a hot and cool season; the summer is the time of the south-west monsoon and is tropical; during the winter, or north-east monsoon, the weather is often mild and warm, but liable to suddenly change to sharp cold. The thermometer ranges between 40° and 96° Fahrenheit, but these extremes are seldom reached; an ordinary summer day in an airily situated house on Kulangsu being perhaps from 82°–87°, and a winter day from 57°–62° Fahrenheit. The comparative salubrity of the climate is no doubt largely due to its dryness, which is remarkable for the latitude. The annual rainfall is only some 40 inches, against 46 inches in Foochow and 80–90 inches in Hongkong. The foreigners who have lived long in the port look healthy, and have none of the worn appearance common to European dwellers in tropical countries. The most marked effects of the climate are nervous and mental; mental lassitude, loss of memory, &amp;c., probably effect more or less all but the very young. These symptoms are also to be observed among the natives, and are no doubt the result of the prolonged heat and rarefied unbracing air; perhaps they account to some extent for the craving for narcotics such as opium and morphia, which is such a marked characteristic of the Chinese of this region. Kulangsu, though found terribly unhealthy when occupied by the British garrison in 1842, except for occasional cases of malaria in the valleys, is a healthy enough place of residence nowadays,