The citizens of Fuhchau bear the character of a reserved, proud, rather turbulent people, unlike the polite, affable natives further north. They are better educated, however, and plume themselves on never having been conquered by foreigners. Their dialect is harsh, contrasting strongly with the nasal tones of the patois of Amoy, and the mellifluous sounds heard at Ningpo. There are few manufactures of importance in the city, its commerce and resources depending almost wholly on the trade with the interior by the River Min. Many culprits wearing the cangue are to be seen in the streets, and in passing none of the hilarious merriment which is heard elsewhere greets the ear. There is also a general lack of courtesy between acquaintances meeting in the highway, a circumstance quite unusual in China. Beggars crowd the thoroughfares, showing both the poverty and the callousness of the inhabitants. One half the male population is supposed to be addicted to the opium pipe, and annually expend millions of dollars for this noxious gratification. The population of the city and suburbs is reckoned at rather over than under a million souls, including the boat people; it is, no doubt, one of the chief cities in the Empire in size, trade, and influence.
The island in the river is settled by a trading population, a great part of whom consist of sailors and boatmen. The country women, who bring vegetables and poultry to market, are a robust race, and contrast strikingly with the sickly-looking, little-footed ladies of the city. Fishing-boats are numerous in the river, many of which are furnished with cormorants.[65]
AMOY AND ITS ENVIRONS.
Amoy is the best known port in the province, and 150 years ago was the seat of a large foreign commerce. It lies in the district of Tung-ngan, within the prefecture of Tsiuenchau, in lat. 24° 40′ N., and long. 118° 20′ E., upon the south-western corner of the island of Amoy, at the mouth of the Lung Kiang. The island itself is about forty miles in circumference, and contains scores of large villages besides the city. The scenery within the bay is picturesque, caused partly by the numerous islands which define it, some of them surmounted by pagodas or temples, and partly by the high hills behind the city, and crowds of vessels in the harbor in the foreground.[66] There is an outer and inner city, as one approaches it seaward—or more properly a citadel and a city—divided by a ridge of rocky hills having a fortified wall along the top. A paved road connects the two, which is concealed from the view of the beholder as he comes in from sea, until he has entered the Inner harbor. The entire circuit of the city and suburbs is about eight miles, containing a population of 185,000, while that of the island is estimated at 100,000 more.
The harbor of Amoy is one of the best on the coast; the tide rises and falls from fourteen to sixteen feet. The western side of the harbor is formed by the island of Kulang su, the batteries upon it completely commanding the city. It is about a mile long and two and three-quarters around, and maintains a large rural population, scattered among four or five hamlets. The foreign residences scattered over its hills add measurably to the charm of its aspect when viewed from the harbor. Eastward of Amoy is the island of Quemoy (i.e., Golden harbor), whose low, rice grounds on the south-west shore produce a very different effect as opposed to the high land on Amoy; its population is, moreover, much less.
The country in this part of Fuhkien is thickly settled and highly cultivated. Mr. Abeel, describing a trip toward Tung-ngan, says, “For a few miles up, the hills wore the same rugged, barren aspect which is so common on the southern coast of China, but fertility and cultivation grew upon us as we advanced; the mountains on the east became hills, and these were adorned with fields. The villages were numerous at intervals; many of them were indicated in the distance by large groves of trees, but generally the landscape looked naked. Well-sweeps were scattered over the cultivated hills, affording evidence of the need and the means of irrigation.”[67]
In the other direction, toward Changchau, the traveller, beyond Pagoda Island, enters an oval bay ten or twelve miles long, bounded by numerous plains rising in the distance into steep barren mountains, and upon which numerous villages are found; twenty-three were counted at once by Mr. Abeel, and the boatmen said that all could not be seen. Several large towns, and “villages uncounted” are visible in every direction, as one proceeds up the river toward Changchau, thirty-five miles from Amoy. This city is well built, the streets paved with granite, some of them twelve feet wide, and intolerably offensive. A bridge, about eight hundred feet long, spans the river, consisting of beams stretching from one abutment to another, covered with cross pieces. From the hill-top behind a temple at the north-western corner of the city, the prospect is charming.
“Imagine an amphitheatre,” says Mr. Lowrie, “thirty miles in length and twenty in breadth, hemmed in on all sides by bare pointed hills, a river running through it, an immense city at our feet, with fields of rice and sugar-cane, noble trees and numerous villages stretching away in every direction. It was grand and beautiful beyond every conception we had ever formed of Chinese scenery. Beneath us lay the city, its shape nearly square, curving a little on the river’s banks, closely built, and having an amazing number of very large trees within and around. The guide said that in the last dynasty it had numbered 700,000 inhabitants, and now he thought it contained a million—probably a large allowance. The villages around also attracted our attention. I tried to enumerate them, but after counting thirty-nine of large size distinctly visible in less than half the field before us, I gave over the attempt. It is certainly within the mark to say that within the circuit of this immense plain there are at least one hundred villages, some of them small, but many numbering hundreds and even thousands of inhabitants.”[68]
Changchau was the last city in the eastern provinces held by the Tai-pings, a small remnant of their forces having come across the country after the loss of Nanking. They were expelled in 1866, after the town had suffered much from the contending forces. Traces of this destruction have not yet entirely disappeared from the vicinity.
Shihma, or Chiohbé, is a place of some trade, extending a mile along the shore, and larger than Haitang hien, a district town between it and Amoy. Large numbers of people dwell in boats on this river, rendering a voyage up its channel somewhat like going through a street, for the noise and bustle.