Wuhu, on the Yangtze, half-way up to Hankau, is recovering from the
blow dealt it by the Taipings in the 60’s. It will take a prominent
place in the coming industrial China because of riches in land, mine,
silk, tea and bamboo near it. It is one of the new strongholds in
education and medicine under American and European auspices. It has
a foreign colony in the hills. The Hwangchi River brings grain and
produce down to its marts, and the great Yangtze sweeps by its harbor
bund. Game, such as pheasant, quail and duck, abounds. There are very
fine pagodas, and in particular a Buddhist rock temple with the figures
of men, animals and birds cut solidly out of, or in relief on the solid
rock, the shrubbery and grass serving for hair and beard in a startling
way. Excursions can be made to the Chin Shan and San Shan hills,
temples, lily lakes and flowery restaurants. The town is full of the
festival spirit, and the beauty of lanterns, arches, flags and matting
shelter is often delightfully exhibited. Wuhu early went over to the
rebel movement of October, 1911. Wuhu is a great sufferer from floods.
They were so deep in August, 1911, that Lion Hill became an island. The
Yangtze, instead of mounting willingly up to Nanking, tries at Wuhu to
break across country for Shanghai. The result is deplorable flood and
resultant famine, involving millions of people.
Tai Yuen is the walled capital of the great coal, iron and loess
province of Shansi, which is as large as England. It is the richest
in minerals of all the provinces. The famous Ping Ting coal and iron
mines are near. The city lies in a great plain 3,000 feet above the
sea on the Fen River, and has railway connection with Peking and all
the east and south. It is to have connection with the capital of Kansu
province, and all the great northwest for thousands of miles. Mills
will arise, for stone, clay, iron and coal are available in this
province as nowhere else. Though the air of the city is exhilarating
and there is little consumption, skin diseases and diseases due to poor
water are prevalent. With irrigation in operation, fertilization of
this loess province would be unnecessary, so that Tai Yuen will yet be
a great wheat and millet center. Her grain, stock and wool merchants
will be taking contracts to feed and clothe America and Britain when
our fields are impoverished and overrun with people. It will be a
financial center, for Shansi’s wealth in China’s new industrial era can
not be computed. Even now the Shansi bankers are the best known, their
guild houses being in every city of the land. The railway, electric
light, post, telegraph and telephone have arrived, and so has the
printing press, raying out reform. The railway has brought progress
to quaint Tai Yuen. There are match factories, police department, a
public band, modern schools of all sorts, an agricultural and military
school, modern roads and a street-cleaning department, a modern jail
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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