YING-K'OU

Pinyin Yingkou, conventional Newchwang city and port in Liaoning sheng (province), China. Ying-k'ou is situated near the mouth of the Hun River, some 11 miles (18 km) from the mouth of the Liao River. Ying-k'ou began to develop as a river port in the second quarter of the 19th century, replacing Niu-chuang and T'ien-chuang-t'ai farther upstream. At first the new port was called Mo-kou-ying (Mo-kou Encampment) after the garrison of coastal defense troops that was quartered there, and the name was later changed to Ying-tzu-k'ou, or Ying-k'ou. Under the Treaty of Tientsin (1858), Niu-chuang was opened to foreign trade, but silt in the Liao River (connected upstream with the Hun River) made it unusable, and instead Ying-k'ou was used as the port from 1864 onward. Somewhat confusingly, Europeans referred to the port as Newchwang (Niu-chuang), the name of the original treaty port. In the late 19th century Ying-k'ou grew into a major port and was the principal outlet for goods from Manchuria. It was essentially a cargo transshipment point between the small junks that used the Liao River and seagoing ships. It was not, however, a very satisfactory port, since it was constantly silting up and was also icebound for three months of the year. Its importance largely vanished in the first decade of the 20th century because of the construction of railways in Manchuria, which diverted most of Ying-k'ou's former trade to L-ta (Dairen). With the construction of its own rail link with the line from L-ta to Shen-yang (Mukden), Ying-k'ou later regained something of its old importance, exporting great quantities of soybeans and manufacturing bean cake and vegetable oil. The city had a large foreign, mainly Japanese, community. Modern Ying-k'ou has developed into an important secondary industrial city, being mostly engaged in light industry. There are cotton mills, knitting factories, oil-extraction plants, canneries, food-processing plants, and paper mills. The area also has a fishing industry and some large salt pans. An engineering industry, specializing in machine-tool manufacture, has also grown up, and a large-scale oil refinery had been established. In 1985 Ying-k'ou was designated one of China's open cities as part of the new open-door policy of inviting foreign trade and investment. Pop. (1989 est.) 401,000.