Kiao-chau

Abstract

Kiao-Chau was a German protectorate from 1898 to 1915, located on the Yellow Sea coast of China. It occupied some 200 square miles on the Shantung Peninsula around and including the city of Tsingtao, leased to Germany for one hundred years by the imperial Chinese government. The pleasant climate and scenic setting of Tsingtao made it a natural site for a resort, and with its location at the mouth of Chiao-chou-wan, one of the best naval harbors in northern China. The Germans developed the harbor, constructed a railroad to Tsinan, and built many resort facilities. In 1903, a method of increasing the annual tax on vacant or underdeveloped land was adopted. Land not utilized for the purpose for which it had been purchased from the government was taxed after 1906 at nine percent instead of the usual six percent, with a three percent increase every three years thereafter until an annual tax of 24 percent had been reached. When properly improved, its tax would revert to six percent. The increment resulting from growth and development was applied to the welfare of the whole population of the colony.