Foochow

Foochow (Fú-Cháu), capital of the Chinese province of Fú-chien, with suburbs extending to the river Min, 25 miles above its mouth. The town proper is surrounded with walls nearly 30 feet high, and 10 feet wide at the top. The river is thronged with floating houses, and is crossed by a great bridge, 329 yards long, built of huge slabs of stone, some of them 42 feet in length, resting on forty piers. The Min provides an easy communication with the interior, with which a large trade is carried on in timber, paper, and cotton and woollen goods; and the port, opened to foreign commerce in 1842, is one of the principal tea-markets and mission stations in China. The trade has declined owing to the competition of Indian teas; but the total annual exports are still reckoned to amount to about 100,000 lb., of which 45 per cent. was shipped to London. The imports are chiefly opium, cotton goods, and lead. There are manufactories of silk and cotton fabrics and paper, and some shipyards; and on an island some three miles down the stream there is a large government arsenal managed by Europeans. Pop. about 630,000.