Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Amoy

AMOY, a city and seaport in the province of Fo-kien, China, situated on the slope of a hill, on the south coast of a small and barren island of the same name, in 24° 28′ N. lat. and 118° 10′ E. long. It is a large and exceedingly dirty place, about 9 miles in circumference, and is divided into two portions, an inner and an outer town, which are separated from each other by a ridge of hills, on which a citadel of considerable strength has been built. Each of these divisions of the city possesses a large and commodious harbour, that of the inner town, or city proper, being protected by strong fortifications. Amoy may be regarded as the port of the inland city of Chang-chu, with which it has river communication; and its trade, both foreign and coastwise, is extensive and valuable. In 1870, 560 vessels, exclusive of Chinese junks, entered the port, of an aggregate burden of 224,436 tons; of these, 315, of 150,171 tons, were British. The chief articles imported were sugar, rice, raw cotton, and opium, as well as cotton cloths, iron goods, and other European manufactures; their value was £1,915,427. In the same year, 554 vessels, of 226,911 tons, cleared the port, including 314 British, of 150,826 tons; the chief exports were tea, porcelain, and paper, and their value was £1,144,046. It is not possible to give the statistics of the trade that is carried on by means of Chinese junks, but it is said to be large; and the native merchants are considered to be among the wealthiest and most enterprising in China. Amoy was captured by the British in 1841, after a determined resistance, and is one of the five ports that were opened to British commerce by the treaty of 1842; it is now open to the ships of all nations. The population of Amoy is estimated at 250,000.