SHANGHAI
709
and foreign residential premises. In 1921 as many as 5,344 building permits were issued in the International Settlement, involving an estimated value of more than Shanghai Tls. 21 million, a figure double that of 1920. At the end of the year 614 blocks of buildings were in progress in the Settlement, including 235 foreign dwelling-houses. Upon roads outside the Settlement some 165 residences were completed. In the French Concession 355 foreign-style residences were built. The French Municipal Council issued 1,646 building permits during the year -1,319 for Chinese owners and 327 for European. During the last four or five years several big granite and concrete offices of a type hitherto unknown locally, and as nearly approaching the "sky-scraper" variety as the subsoil would permit, have been erected. Extensive rebuilding is taking place on the Bund, where structures of 5, 6 and 7 storeys are taking the place of the old buildings, prominent amongst these being the premises of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, N. C. Daily News, Chartered Bank, Yokohama Specie Bank, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and the Glen Line. It is reported that a huge up-to-date hotel, 14 storeys high, is to be erected on the Bubbling Well Road opposite the Race Course. In the western district dwelling-houses of the better-class have sprung up like mushrooms.
A small but well laid-out and admirably kept Public Garden was formed about 1868 on land recovered from the river in front of the British Consulate. It has been considerably extended in area by reclaiming the foreshore, and a further extension of five and a half mow by diverting the Soochow Creek was completed in 1905. A general Public Garden, intended for Chinese, eight mow in extent, by the bank of the Soochow Creek, was opened in December, 1890. A Park measuring 364 ft. by 216 ft. is laid out in Hongkew. The Public Recreation Ground has also been thoroughly drained, turfed and laid out, in spaces not devoted to sport, with flower-beds. A large extent of ground near Jessfield has been converted into a decorative park and botanical garden.
Immense sums have been wasted in various attempts to drain the Settlements principally from the want of skilled direction; but the great difficulties in this matter arising from the low-lying and level nature of the ground have now been fairly overcome, though very much work of this nature has still to be undertaken in the recently-acquired area. The Settlements are well provided with telephonic fire-alarms. The desire of the Municipal Councils to keep the monopoly in their own hands retarded for many years the inauguration of waterworks, but a public company now furnishes a continuous supply of filtered water at moderate rates, and so successful has it been that the original capital has been more than doubled. The acquisition of this undertaking by the Municipality has been approved in principle. A separate system of waterworks for the French Concession has been inaugurated, and Chinese waterworks, to supply the native city, were completed in September, 1899. The electric light was introduced in 1882, and are lamps are erected on all the principal thoroughfares and wharves. In 1893 the Municipality purchased the property and business of the Electric Company, but the administration of the Electric Light Department has not given entire satisfaction. The French Municipality has an excellent electric light service, and the native Bund is lighted by a Chinese Electric Light Company.
Shanghai can boast of many fine buildings of various and varied styles of architecture. The first English church, built in 1847, did not long exist, for in 1850 the roof fell in. It was, however, patched up, and continued in use till 1862, when it gave way to a building professedly only temporary. On the 16th May, 1866, accordingly, the foundation-stone was laid of a new building which was opened for public worship in August, 1869. Although at the time considered extravagantly large, the congregation has since outgrown the accommodation. It possesses a fine organ, and a full and highly-trained choir. It is Gothic of the thirteenth century, according to the practice of the day, 152 feet long, 58 feet wide, and 54 feet from the floor to the apex of the nave. The structure was not completed, however, until 1892, when the spire was erected, the cross being placed on the top on the 4th October of that year. It attains a total height of 160 feet and, like the body of the edifice, is built of red brick, with stone dressing. There is a Roman Catholic Church in the French Concession called St. Joseph's, built in 1862, and another in Hongkew known as the Church of the Sacred Heart. There are also the Union Church on the Soochow Creek, a church with spire and bells in Yunnan Road, belonging to the American Methodist Episcopal Mission, a chapel belonging to the London Mission, and two to the American Episcopalians, the church of St. Andrew, in Broadway, Hongkew, which, besides serving as a Seamen's church, acts also as a chapel of ease to the Anglican Cathedral, besides several mission chapels for natives. The Jesuit Fathers have an extensive mission establishment and orphanages at Sicawei, where a mission has existed for over