Agricultural machinery will before long be required on the great plains
of Pechili, Mongolia and the three Manchurian provinces, whence America
will draw much grain, meat, oil, lumber and coal. Nail, needle and
glass factories are going up on a small scale. China has the iron in
the mine, but she will need our machinery. Paper mills are largely
increasing, and we need their pulp. Some mills use bamboo, which the
Japanese successfully experimented on in Formosa. Factories for making
soap, the most glaringly deficient thing in dirty China hitherto, have
been erected, even in far western Chingtu City. China, like Japan, has
concluded to adopt wool in the northern provinces instead of padded
cotton and sheepskin. Woolen mills have been erected at Shanghai,
Peking, Lanchow, Hankau, Kalgan, etc., to work up to the vast supplies
of Mongolian and Pechili shearings. The old method of making winter
clothing was to pad cotton and silk with cotton batting and silk waste,
the wearer being transformed into a comical Falstaffian size. Modern
tanneries have been erected by Mohammedan Chinese at Hankau, Lanchow,
Singan, etc. Hardware and enameled ware factories have been erected at
Tientsin, Canton, etc., but China can not for years take care of her
needs in hardware. Flour mills abound at Harbin, Shanghai and Hongkong,
and will be rapidly extended throughout the north. Cement is being
heavily produced, and will increase, great factories now being run
at Tongshan in Pechili, Canton and Macao in Kwangtung, and Tayeh in
Hupeh provinces. All of these industries will need machinery. Of all
municipal improvements, China has needed modern water-works the most.
They are now in operation in the cities of Shanghai, Hankau, Tientsin,
Canton, Peking, Mukden, Chingtu, Nanking, Hangchow, Chinkiang, Swatow,
Tsinan, Newchwang, etc. Electric cars are run at Canton, Shanghai,
Peking, Hongkong, Hankau, Tientsin, Tsingtau, etc. Hongkong has a
wonderful cable railway up 1,500 feet of mountain, which will be
copied at Kiukiang, and other hill resorts from the heat. Telephone
service is installed at Hongkong, Canton, Shanghai, Peking, Tientsin,
Tsingtau, Chingtu, Wuhu, Hangchow, Ningpo, Nanking, etc. Electric
light is furnished at Nanking, Peking, Tientsin, Tsingtau, Hankau,
Swatow, Mukden, Newchwang, Shanghai, Hangchow, etc. In little of this
have the Americans entered as yet, though they will on a vast scale
as American finance and industry extends its agencies. The financing
and the contracting often go together, and it is not unknown for the
British and Germans to combine, though the British would be glad to
join with the Americans, if there were Americans on the ground. Often
the suppliers divide on a plant, the British furnishing the engines
and boilers, and the Germans the dynamos. Gas works are also being
erected, and the incandescent mantle lamps are very popular. As China
has untold riches in coal, her development in gas lighting will be
extensive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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