Untitled

244
Fig.
113. FCCHEW-FU.
Scale 1 : 65,000.
EAST ASIA.
roadway have fallen into the stream, where they have formed rapids, barring the
further progress
of junks.
In 1876 this bridge, although completely submerged
the inundations of the Min, successfully
resisted the violence of the current.
by
The European quarter lies in the Nantai suburb, where most of the houses are
scattered amid old Chinese tombs on the slope of a hill commanding a prospect of
the city. The chief staple of export has for years been tea, forwarded almost
2,200 Yards.
exclusively to England and
Australia. Recently, however,
the Russian traders settled at
Fuchew have begun to prepare
brick tea, which is shipped for
Tientsin and Siberia. The local
traffic consists of lumber,
bamboos, furniture, paper, rice,
fruits, exchanged for European
goods from Hongkong, Canton,
and Shanghai.
Six miles above Fuchew
the Min is crossed by another
bridge like the Weuchew-kiao.
But all river craft are arrested
at Sliui-kow, below the great
city of Ynngpintj, which stands
at the converging point of the
chief routes of the Min basin.
The botanist Fortune ascended
the main stream to visit the
districts where the best black
teas of Fokien are grown.
But various obstacles compelled
him to retrace his steps, returning
by a pass over the " Bohea "
Mountains, which attain a
mean elevation of 6,000 or
7|000 feet, with peaks rising
in the eastern ridges to 10,000
feet. The great tea mart in
this upper region of the Min is
Txmga*, not far from the isolated Wi-shan, one of the most venerated mountains
in China, consisting of conglomerate sandstone, granite, and quartz, and rising
1,000 feet above the plain. Here is also one of the best tea-growing tracts,
extensively cultivated by the Buddhist monks of the " 999 temples" scattered over
the surrounding hills.
Before Fuchew the more southerly city of Tstcanchew was the capital of