LOST CHINESE CITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15650, 2 July 1914, Page 9

LOST CHINESE CITY.

DESERT' REPLACES HOUSES.

Tire Wenchow correspondent of the North China Daily News contributes an interesting account of the rebuilding of Tsiingtein, " the city that was lost," whicTi he has visited for the first time since it was wiped out by a typhoon in August, 1912.

Tsingtien was a walled city of over 3000 families (say 20,000 people), standing on tho Wu River, in Chekiang, about twenty" miles above Wencbow, on the coast. On August, 29, 1912, a typhoon struck it, and during the night the river rose 50ft, filled the city like a cup, and floated masses of houses bodily over the wall and away out to sea. At a conservative estimate at least 2000 persons were blotted . out. To count the number that perished in the surrounding oountry would be impossuie, but 43 towns and hamlets in the surrcindir.g district were'partially or wholly nined/ When the • 'sitor explored the neighbourhood a few weeks ago he found wastes of sand where prosperous towns once stood. Slowly and laboriously these deserts are being reclaimed. The deposit of sand lies from 2ft to 3ft deep, and all this, be it observed, has to be removed in baskets, by hand labour. The Chinese have ,no other way. Inside the city many new houses are being built, and business is slowly reviving. Fortunately, last year's crops were the best within , memory. But the population of Tsingtien is not half what it was, and years must elapse before the district recovers from the visitation of . 1912. So does Nature keep down the teeming millions of "the country that produces four generations while Europe produces three."