Frank Joseland Describes Amoy Area

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
“A word about the country reached from the “door” of Amoy may not be amiss, as some people seem to fancy china is one great flat plain. I venture to call the Fokien province, the “Wales” or “Scotland” of China, so diversified is it as to natural scenery. Mountains several thousand feet high are found all over the province with fertile valleys in between, well watered by good rivers. In most parts the soil is rich, yielding good crops of rice, barley, wheat, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, tobacco, as well as great varieties of vegetables. Fruit trees abound­oranges, limes, bananas, plantains, pineapples, pumaloes, mangoes, loquats, carambolas, and many other kinds with local names that have no counterpart in English. Forests of pine and fir are found on the hills; the wide-spreading banyan and the elegant bamboo on the plains among the towns and villages. Coal and iron are met with as well as many other precious metals, but this store of Heaven-provided gifts is only very partially worked owing to the firm hold that superstition has upon the people. Tea, paper, lumber, articles made from bamboo, are the principal products....
Joseland, Rev. Frank P. , in Gaunt, 1899

Gaunt, Rev. L.H., Ed., “The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, Vol. VIII – No. 85 New Series,” London, 1899

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