Field Trip in Yangtze River, Day 1

Hello everyone, this is Liu Chang, M2 student writing about our field trip in Yangtze River (長江) basin. For your brief information, this field trip was planned by Prof. Shiroyama from Faculty of Economics. Therefore, Prof. Kawasaki, Sam-san and I will join this trip with professors who majored in economics and history. As we have arrived in Wuhan (武漢) yesterday night, we are planning to visit Hankou Customs House Museum and leave for Chongqing (重慶) in the afternoon.

Schematic Map of Three Towns in Wuhan

Because we are about to talk a lot about history, some geographical information will certainly help. One important thing is that Wuhan (武漢) is consisted of three towns known as Hankou (漢口), Wuchang (武昌) and Hanyang (漢陽). These three towns are separated by two rivers: Yangtze River (長江) and Han River (漢江).

Hankou Customs House Museum

As you can see from the photo above, the museum was used to be Hankow Customs House. You may wonder why the building looks in a western style. That is a good question. The construction of the Hankou Customs House was started in 1922 and completed in January 1924. With a reinforced concrete structure, the House covered a total floor area of 1,499 m². Its four-story main building and five-story bell tower reached a total height of 45.85 meters. In terms of architectural style, it features the classical Greek style and European Renaissance style.

Why we built such building in Hankou? This has things to do with Chinese history. In the late Ming and early Qing, Hankou had become one of the four famous towns in China with advantageous central location, accessibility to the rivers and being at the crossroads of nine provinces. It was a major national inland trading port for its thriving handicraft industries and booming economy in this period. During the Second Opium War, Hankou was forced to be opened as a treaty port as required in the Treaty of Tianjin and the Convention of Beijing. In March 1861, Hankou was officially opened as a treaty port and maintained by British people. Concessions of many countries are built after that. British (1861), German (1895), Russian (1896), French (1896) and Japanese (1898) have all built their international settlement here. Hankou had witnessed invasions by foreign powers one after another, and Wuhan had undergone unprecedented changes in the fields of economics, politics and culture.

Concessions in Hankou

 Therefore, this Museum has collected documents and items which recorded this period (1861~1949) and we can have a touch of history in this small building.

The Receipts of he Export and Transit Tax of the Shanghai Customs (1939)

The Voucher of the Clearance and Shipping Permits of Tianjin Customs (1937)

Passport (1891)

 Although it sounds not so comfortable for local people to know their land being rented to foreigners by force, it is still a kind of modernization. The Hankou Customs adopted the organizational structure of British customs in which a “commissioner” served as the executive chief, under whom were the deputy commissioners and assistant managers. Based on the nature of the work, the Hankou Customs comprised seven departments including the General Affairs Dept., Secretary Dept., Accounting Dept., Inspection Dept., Port Management Dept., and the River Management Dept.

The main functions of the Hankou Customs included examining, assessing, taxing, inspecting the imports and exports, and managing the non-trading mailed articles of residents and foreign settlers across the national boundaries. Its responsibilities also included port administration, channels maintenance, water diversion, meteorological observations, postal service, quarantine, customs brokers management and so on. The museum reconstructed the office where they deal with imports and exports. There is even a video game teaching you how to declare your cargo.

Reconstruction of Customs Office

 Rest of the Museum is about the development of Wuhan after Xinhai Revolution (1911). With the modernization brought by foreigners, Wuhan ushered in its heyday of the financial industry. Many well-known domestic and foreign financial institutions gathered in Wuhan, making it a famous financial center next only to Shanghai in modern China.

China Industrial Bank (1936)

 Another interesting thing is about one photo of inundation condition in 1931. The building was Wuhan City Hall, but sadly we cannot find the residuals nowadays. But the height seems to match with our simulation result. So, it’s quite encouraging for us to see this photo.

A Picture of the Municipal Government of Hankou in the Flood (1931)

 And some models showing civilization from 1949 to 2014 is also fascinating. Maybe it’s not so correct, it’s still nice to see such development of this old city.

City Area in 1949

City Area in 1978

City Area in 2014

 During lunch, we are invited by professors from Central China Normal University. The food is so delicious. We felt even guilty not being able to finish them.

Lunch at Central China Normal University

After waiting for 3 hours in the airport. We finally arrive in Chongqing at around 9 pm. Then we have a nice hot pot for dinner. The spicy food and beautiful light impressed me deeply.

Dinner Street

Hot Pot

Night View of Central Chongqing