Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-19
TS|TS|HAR CAPITAL
OF RICH FARM AREA
City, However, Has Become
important as Railway
Center.

"Tsitsihar, around which Chinese
and Japanese forces are slkirmishing in
Manchuria, is the capital Of Heilung
Kiang, largest of the three provinces
Of Manchuria, and the principal city
in a vast, only partially developed area
of rich farming and grazing land" the
National Geographic Society said to-
day:
sensation to the $4,000 inhabitants OF
this brown-walled city in the fertile
valley of the Nonni River. Tsitsihar
was built in 1892 to overawe marauding
tribes of Mongols and CossackS.
Later China sent many bandits into
exile into Manchuria. The medley Of
native population groups in the yictn-
ity of Tsitsihar forced the construction
of huge barracks there and the detail
Of military units to the town, so that 1t
has long had the aspect Of a fortress
Becomes Railway Center.
"Like every other important Man
churian city, TsitSihar owes its present
wealth and activity to railroads. When
the Chinese Eastern Railway was built
as a short cut between Chita and
VladivoStok, TsitsihAr was q Slovenly
settlement of ramShackle buildings
back of its crenelated walls. Builders
of the Chinese Eastern missed the town
by laying the line 10 miles to the
south. Later. however, q narrow
gauge spur was built, connecting with
the Chinese Eastern at a stop known
only as Tsitsihar Station.
''Tsitsihar has come into the present
Misunderstanding however, through
a new and extremely busy railroad line,
decade
northward from Taonanfu, through
Anganchi, and crossing over the Chi
nese Eastern main line on bridge at
Tsitsihar Station, the junction point
of the narrow-gauge line. This new
line is Chinese-operated and Japanese
owned from Taonanfu to Anganchi,
and entirely Chinese owned and oper-
ated from Anganchi to the city OF
Tsitsihar.
"The new line does not end at
Tsitsihar, but continues in northeast
direction for 70 miles to Taianchen.
Eventually it will reach the Siberian
border and will connect with a branch
Of the Transsiberian Railway at Blago-
Veshchensk.
Greatly Modernized.
Few travellers visited isolated Tsit-
sihar before the railroad came. For
a time those who did passed by coftlns
strewn outside the town walls-cofhns
of natives whose families were unable
to pay burial expenses. Inside the
walls the travellers saw a dingy piano.
rama Of dirty shacks lining unpaved
and unlighted streets.
Railroads have changed all that.
Today Tsitsihar is busy town. greatly
changed and improved by modern de-
velopment. While it is neither as large
nor as modernized as the two other
Manchurian provincial capitals, Muk-
den and Kirin, Tsitsihar has several
wide, paved streets, electric lights, tele-
graph and telephone services. Tile
rooted houses, with coats Of bright
paint, are rising where old shacks once
stood
Since the new north-south railroad
has been added to the spur from the
Chinese Eastern Railway, Tsitsihar Is
on the way to becoming one Of the chief
industrial centers Of Manchur1a. Mills
are grinding out meal as fast as soy
beans can be brought from Manchurian
fields. It's shops and stores throng
with customers, and its railroad yards
are scenes Of constant movements Of
trains. The new line to Taianchen
broke all records for traffic In Man
churia early this year.
Rendezvous Of Many Races.