Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-13
Floating Slums of China.

Cities, aside from their historic value to
mankind, are principally notable for their
location, whether as mountain. seashore or
plain. Each of these classes has been
duplicated in every country and in every
period of recorded history. There remains
but a single type of city which is as differ
ent from all theirs sea and land. which
has existed for countless ages, but in a
single country
These unique cities are the floating Sums
of China, where, with the land overrun
with countless hordes of human beings,
like rats In an old stable. tire extra nun
dreds of thousands of Chinese nave been
driven from foothold on mother earth
and live and die in their famous cities of
boats without ever putting foot on terra
firma In appearance dress and habits OF
life these queer jewellers on the bosom of
the coast and river waters of China differ
but little from the remainder of the down.
trodden millions of this oriental empire.
They are born in a filthy corner of their
boats. live and die on them, and no dog
that dragged out an existence at the end of
a ten-fOot chain was ever so cramped and
restricted as these people. The size of the
boats which by tens of thousands make up
the dozen big floating Sums of China vary
from the sampan, small fye-foot craft
worked by a clumsy oar called yuloh,
to the big junks that generally make vOy-
ages up and down the enormous rivers of
the yellow empire. carrying the coastwise
trade OF the country from the coast cities
far into the interior.
The little sampan is barely wide enough
for two persons to sit in abreast. Yet eight
people are about the average number of the
family which inhabits It. Next In impor-
lance to the sampan is the houseboat.
which is usually fifteen to forty feet in
length. The junks run from one to two
hundred tons in weight. In every Chinese
river there is floating slum. and they
cluster together around some central an
chorng place which is named by the near
est civic authorities.
The biggest of all floating cities is in the
Pearl river near Canton China. Seen from
the towering deck of an ocean steamer,
this water city seems limitleSs in extent.
Intending lines Of thousands of boats
crowded with people to their waters edge,
aggregating altogether a population of POO
600, this low, reeking slum Of big and little
boats rocks with the tide and In hot
weather smells to high heaven. The very
| houses on the river bank for miles cannot
be seen because of the forest of masts in
the boat city.
Pestiience which Stays half city's popu-
lation in a month occasionally breaks gu,
in these floating slums The plague runs
riot now and then. killing an enormous per-
centage, which, however, rapidly Is made
up with new Inhabitants. Once river
Chinaman always a river native. Strict
police watch is kept over the big floating
slums to prevent any large exodus of its
inhabitants, as otherwise the diseases which
infest them would speedily travel over the
nearby districts. Upon the great Yangtse
river these floating cities form almost a
continuous streak for a hundred miles Of It's
mighty mouth. Nowhere else Is human life
so cheap or does 1t exist under such ia
human and appalling conditions.