IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Across Asia : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
take a good look at me. Having replied to exactly the same intelligent questions in no less an intelligent manner and with a fixed smile, I was delighted to find myself alone and able to get down to my work.
This is the first Chinese town I have visited, in which the wall that encloses it does not attract attention more than anything else. When you arrive, you do not see it at all, and in walking through the town it would be easy not to notice it, if the gates, through which the streets pass, did not betray its presence. When this little town was founded, it was certainly not anticipated to what extent the place would grow some day. Now it has expanded in all directions, but mainly to the south, though also to a considerable extent to the north. The wall is obviously no longer intended for defence, being compressed between buildings that have grown on to it. You are allowed to walk on the wall freely. There are no barracks inside the town and even the yamens of the officials, such as the Taotai's, are outside. The part N of the town is particularly charming with a very convex old stone bridge, a small river, many shady trees and open grassy meadows. The S part is more townlike, houses close to each other, narrow, dusty streets, crooked lanes etc. This is the principal centre for trade.
The population of the town is said to be about (5,300) 7-10,000 tja, of which about (2,000) 3,000 are Dungans, according to another source 100,000 and 20-30,000, which seems greatly exaggerated. The number of shops is about 500. Approximately 40 stock goods from Eastern China and from abroad, the rest of the trade consists in the sale of local products. 17 or 18 moneychangers seem to find enough business to keep them alive. About a dozen Chinese agents of business houses (mostly foreign) in Eastern China are settled here to keep an eye on the transport of their goods. About ten large sarais for storing transit goods are owned by citizens of Tientsin. In general Tientsin is well represented in the local business world.
Local trade is considerable in comparison with other places in Northern Shansi and the town is a storehouse for goods intended for the surrounding parts of Mongolia, but the actual importance of Kweihwa ting lies in the large transit traffic between Peiping and Tientsin on the one hand and Northern Kan Su and Sinkiang on the other, especially Kucheng. According to the information I received, the annual quantity of goods passing through Kweihwa ting is as follows:
July 7th. Kweihwa ting.
| Coarse cotton cloth from Shantung and other goods from Eastern China |
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| sold in Kweihwa ting | 1,000 | tan |
| Peiping and foreign goods | 2,000 | » |
| to Sinkiang | 12,000 | » |
| Lanchow | 3,000,000 taels | |
| » Ninghsia-fu | 300,000 | » |
| Lianchow abt. | 1,000,000 | » |
| » » » » » Kanchow » | 6-700,000 | » |
| » Suchow » | 4-500,000 | » |
| Tun-huang » | 20-30,000 | » |
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