White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-01-14

prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.)-WNU Service.
Nv THE three principal focal
points of the Sino-Japanese
~ disturbance in Manchuria-
Tsitsihar, Anganchi, and Chin
chowfu- Tsitsihar is, perhaps, the
most widely known because it has
been stopping place and press box
for world-girdlers in recent years.
Tsitsihar is the capital of Heilung
Kiang, largest of the three provinces
OF Manchuria, and the principal city in
vast, only partially-developed area
of rich farming and grazing land. Mil
itary activity is no new 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 in Manchuria. The medley Of
native population groups in the vicin-
ity of Tsitsihar forced the construction
of huge barracks there and the details
of military units to the town, so that
it has long had the aspect of for
tress. Like every other important
Manchurian city Tsitsihar owes it's
present wealth and activity to rail
roads. When the Chinese Eastern
railway was built as short cut be-
tween Chita and Vladivostok, Tsitsi-
har was a slovenly settlement of ram
shackle buildings back of it's creme
lated walls. Builders of the Chinese
Eastern missed the town by laying
the line Is miles to the south. Later,
however, narrow gauge spur was
built, connecting with the Chinese
Eastern at Tsitsihar Station.
Tsitsihar came into the recent "mis-
understanding" however, through
new and extremely busy railroad line,
constructed during the last 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 Tsitsi-
har but continues in a northeast direc-
ton for 70 miles to Taianchen. Even
tually it will reach the Siberian Dor
der and will connect with a branch
of the Trans-Siberian railway at Bla
goveshchensl.
Town With Modern mprovm snts.
Few travellers visited isolated Tsitsi-
har before the railroad came. For
time those who did passed by collins
strewn outside the town walls-coffins
of natives whose families were I'M
able to pay burial expenses. Inside
the walls the travellers saw dingy
panorama of dirty shacks lining I'M
paved and unlighted streets.
Railroads have changed all that.
Today Tsitsihar is busy town, great
ly changed and improved by modern
development. Willie it is neither as
large nor as modernZed as the other
two Manchurian provincial capitals
Mukden and Kirin, Tsitsihar has sew
eral wide paved streets, electric lights,
telegraph and telephone services.
Tile-roofed 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 Manchuria.
Mills are grinding out meal as fast
as soy beans can be brought from
Manchurian fields. Its shops and
stores throng with customers, and it's
railroad yards are scenes of constant
movements of trains. The new line
to Taianchen broke all records for
traffic in Manchuria early this year.
Manchus, Mongols, Koreans, Rus
slams, Yakuts, Chinese, Japanese and
few Europeans may be seen on the
streets of the city. which is fast as
suming the cosmopolitan air of other
Chinese trading towns. During the
horse and cattle fairs Mongol cattle
traders flock to Tsitsihar, nearly dou-
bling the population.
Manclurian horses come mostly
from the grass-covered plains in the
vicinity Of Tsitsihar The region is
the native home of the pony which
helped to build up the near-word en-
oire of the great Kublai Khan. Shay
gy and stubborn, the Tsitsihar mount
has endurance and is dependable on
long marches over cold, irregular ter
rain. Heilung Kiang province leads
in the production of barley in Man
churia; is second in soy beans and
wheat. OF it's 20,5OO,O00 cultivable