1937

TIENTSIN
A36
itie city wiJi ever be infamous to Europeans from the massacre of the
french Sisters of Mercy and other foreigners on June 21st, 1870, in which
the most appalling brutality was exhibited; as usual, the political agitators
who instigated the riot got off. The Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was
destroyed on that occasion, was inbuilt,'d,nd-»th(e hew building was consecrated
in 1897, only again to fall a victim to BoxeEfury in 1900. The building occu¬
pied a commanding site on the river bank. All the missions and many of the
foreign hongs had agencies in the city phlbr .to the debacle of 1900.
The population was 1,388,747 in 1929. The city walls were quadrate and
extended about 4,000 feet in the direction" of each cardinal point; during the
year 1901 they. were, entirely. demolished and replaced, by fine open boulevards
under the orders of; the Eoreigu Military Provisional. Government. This body,
has further bunded; the whole of the Hai Ho (Pei-ho) and effected numberless,
other urban improvements. The advent of foreigners caused a great increase
in the value of real estate all over Tientsin.
, ' Li Hung-chang authorised Mr. Tong King-seng to sink a coal sihaft at
Tong Shan (60 mileg N.E. of‘Tientsin) in the ’seventies; this was done and
proved the precursor of a,railway,1 which was later extended to iShanhaikwan
for military purposes, and from thence round the 6rulf of Liautung to Kin-
cho\y; 1^00'saw this line pushed bh to Newchwang. In 189? the line to Peking
was Opened, anpl proved such a SucpesS that the line had to be doubled in
j898-9. A side station for the TientSih5 City was opehed- in 1904, and in 1905
the station was built Of, white1'sandstone bricks made 'at Huangtsun By an
Italian called Marzbli, who had opened a brick factory on a large scale,
trom Feng-tai, about 7 miles. from the capital, the trans-continental line to
Hankow branches off. This line; .w$fl completed and opened to .traffic in Novem¬
ber, 1905. In 1900 the yiolcnpqj.of the Boxers was chiefly directed against the
railways, all of which vyere more op less destroyed, but under British, French,
and Russian; military,; adminhtpatipn they, were afterwards, all restored to,
their former efficiency. ;
Foreigners formerly jived in 'three concessions—British, French, ahd' Ger->
man—'which fringed the r.ivef bbloW the city and coveted an area of less than
MK} acres.' The Japanese took'up a concession in accordance: with the terms
of the Treaty of Shimphoseki. They tilled''in land, laid put new streets aPd
built a large number of houses in foreign style. During 1901 Russia, Belgium,
Italy, and AustroMliinga'ry all appropriated large areas on the left bank of
the *Hai-ho as future Settleifienth, while the existing concessions extended their,
boundaries considerably. These developments for some time threw all'
.rinding facilities for direct sea-going traffic into foreign hands;
In 1917, upon the entry pf China into the'Great War, the Chinese reco¬
vered control over. the German and Austrian concessions, ill 1920 over the
Russian, and in 1929 over the Belgian. The general deterioration- 'in the
maintenance _ and in the public sei'vices_Pf these areas since their rendition
to China (with the exception of the Belgian- concession which had never' been
•develqped at all) is most noticeable. The administration of all these areas
:s .now entirely in the hands of Chinese officials' and no voice therein is' al¬
lowed to any of the residents, either fotefgn or Chinese. The 'other concessions
have , excellent and well-lighted roads, and an electric tramway System-links
them with the Chinese city. The British Municipality has a handsome Town
Hall, completed ;n 1889; adjoining there is a well-kept public garden, open¬
ed in the year of Jubilee and styled Victoria Bark; Two excellent recreation
grounds of. 10 acres and over here have been developed, in., which tennis-courts,
etc., have been laid out. The various British areas—known as the British
Concess on, British Extension, and the Extra-Mural Area—hav.e been amal¬
gamated to form one Municipal Area under a Council elected on a broad
franchise. New land regulations have come into force, and it is stipulated
therein that the new Council consist of ten members, of whom five shall b<»
British subjects and five shall be Chinese. Candidates must be nominated by
Vwo electors and all electors are eligible to:serve on the Council. The mini-