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See also: port of See also: China, in the province of Kwang-tung, opened to See also: foreign See also: trade in 1869
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The populationis upwards of 6o,000
.
The See also: town is situated at the mouth of the See also: main branch of the See also: river Han, which 30 See also: miles inland flows past the See also: great city of Ch'aochow Fu, or Tai-chu (Tie-chu), while the surrounding country is more populous and full of towns and villages than any other See also: part of the province
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The See also: climate is See also: good, but being situated at the See also: southern end of the See also: Formosa Strait the town is exposed to the full force of the typhoons, and much destruction is occasionally wrought
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See also: English merchants settled on See also: Double See also: Island in the river as early as 1856; but the city, which is built on ground but recently recovered from the See also: sea, was formerly a See also: mere fishing See also: village
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The trade of the port has rapidly increased
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In 1869 the See also: total value of the trade was £4,800,000, in 1884 £5,519,772, and in 1904 £7,063,579• The surrounding country is a great See also: sugar-See also: cane See also: district producing annually about 2,400,000 cwt. of sugar, and there is an extensive refinery in the town employing up-wards of 600 workmen and possessing a See also: reservoir for 7,000,000 gallons of See also: water
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Next in value comes the manufacture of bean-cake, which is also imported in large quantities from Niuchwang, Chifu, See also: Shanghai, See also: Amoy and Hong-See also: Kong
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Among the leading exports are See also: tea (since about 1872); grass-See also: cloth, manufactured at See also: Swatow from so-called Taiwan See also: hemp (the fibre of the Boehmeria nivea from Formosa); See also: pine-See also: apple cloth, manufactured in the villages about Chieh-Yang (a town 22 M. distant); oranges, for which the district is famous; cheap fans; and See also: pewter, iron and tin wares
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Swatow is also a great emigration port and was the scene of many kidnapping adventures on the part of foreigners in the early days
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Their outrages gave rise to much hostile feeling towards foreigners who were not allowed to enter the city of Ch'aochow Fu until the See also: year 1861
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Of the whole foreign trade of the port upwards of 83% is in See also: British bottoms, the trade with Hong-Kong being of especial importance
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About 1865 the whole Swatow district was still divided into a number of " See also: independent townships, each ruled by its own See also: head-men," and the population was described in the official gazetteer, as " generally rebellious and wicked in the highest degree." Mr Forrest, British consular See also: agent, relates that in that year he was witness to the preparations for a fight between the See also: people living on the opposite sides of the estuary, which was only pre-vented by a British war-vessel
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The Taip`ings swept over the country, and by their ravages and plundering did much to tame the independence of the clans
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The punishment inflicted in 1869 by See also: Commander See also: Jones on the inhabitants of Otingpui (Ou-ting-pei), about 8 m. from Swatow, for the attack they had made on the boats of H.M.S
.
" Cockchafer," showed the
See also: Chinese authorities that such piratical villages were not so strong as had been supposed
.
General Fang (a native of Ch'aochow Fu) was sent to reduce the district to See also: order, and he carried out his instructions with remorseless rigour
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