Sichuan Tourism Options in the 1930s

Posted: March 6th, 2021 | No Comments »

Ming Sung Steamers were offering trips to ‘Progessive Szechuan’ in the 1930s with sailings from Shanghai to Chongqing via the ports of Nanjing, Wuhan, Yichang and Wanxian (the latter two being at either end of the scenic Three Gorges (that didn’t survive the Communist Master Builders sadly).

Ming Sung was based in Shanghai (though most of its steamers were Clydeside built) and obviously very much onboard with the Nationalist Government who pushed the ‘Progressive’ Sichuan line. Ming Sung, which had become China’s largest private shipping concern by the late 1940s, didn’t survive post-1949 and their ships were taken over by Chiang Jiang Maritime Bureau, though some Ming Sung ships (they owned about 100 shallow draft steamers in 1947) and staff made it to Taiwan to start over. Ming Sung built its fleet up by buying many second hand ships from all over – the Calulu below being originally a Hamburg-based cargo ship, then an Australian owned ship out of Brisbane, briefly registered in Hong Kong and then with Ming Sung in Shanghai from 1933 to its scrapping in 1937.

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