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SHANGHAI
by Mr. von Heidenstam in 1921 and adopted in 1922, pending the decision as to fo larger scheme referred to above. A new large dredger and mud-pump were acquired 1922 and 1923 with auxiliary craft. The Whangpoo will accordingly be improved as to have a navigational channel with 30 ft. depth at lowest low-water and 36-40 ft. high water. During 1924 dredging was proceeding at the rate of about 2,000,000 cul yards per annum, all the mud being used for reclaimings.
Under the control of the Coast-Lighting department of the Maritime Custom and out of the tonnage dues provided in the original treaties with China, t approaches from the sea to Shanghai are now well lighted and buoyed, and t dangers of the continually shifting banks and shoals well guarded against. Lighthou have been erected, served by powerful lights, at West Volcano, Shaweishan, Nor Saddle, Bonham and Steep Islands, Pehyu-shan, Gutzlaff and Woosung, and there two lightships in the entrance of the River Yangtsze. In this respect the interests the shipping frequenting the port have been well considered, and the entire installati takes a high rank amongst similar undertakings elsewhere. The same departme has also inaugurated a system of buoys and lighting on the Yangtsze as far as Hanko six hundred miles above Woosung, suited to present requirements. The northe mouth of the "South Branch" of the Yangtsze, which serves as the main passa for coasting steamers from Shanghai to the northern ports, has also been carefu surveyed and buoyed and lighted by the same authority.
HISTORY
The origin of the name "Shanghai," which literally means "Upper Sea," has bee much debated, but probably like Kaoch'ang, "High Reeds," and Kiangwan, "Riv Bend," names still existing in the neighbourhood, was merely the vernacular title give to the place when still an island at the mouth of the Yangtsze. It does not appear history till the time of the Mongol Empire. We find at various periods, from after Ha downwards, that K'wenshan, Changshu, Kiating, etc., were constituted into separa hsiens, and that in the year 1292 Shanghai was likewise erected into a separate distri and placed under Sungkiang-fu, which itself had only fifteen years previously bee divided from Kiahsing-fu, now in the province of Chekiang. Prior to that it had bee made a Customs' station on account of its favourable position for trade, but its growt had been slow, and for centuries the chief trade of the lower district had been co centrated at the mouth of the Liu-ho, now an insignificant creek which, passing Ta tsang, joins the Yangtsze some twenty-five miles above Woosung.
With the silting up of the Liu-ho and its eventual extinction as a navigab channel, largely brought about apparently by the opening of the Hwangpu befo alluded to, Shanghai became the principal shipping port of this region; and such had been for some centuries when it was visited in 1832 by Mr. H. H. Lindsay, head the late firm of Lindsay & Co., accompanied by the Rev. Chas. Gutzlaff, in the Lo Amherst, with a view to opening up trade, and from that time begins its moder history. Mr. Lindsay in his report of the visit says that he counted upwards of for hundred junks passing inwards every day for seven days, and found the place possesse commodious wharves and large warehouses. Three years later it was visited Dr. Medhurst, who confirmed the account given by Mr. Lindsay. On the 13th Jun 1842, a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, and a military for of 4,000 men under Sir Hugh Gough, captured the Woosung forts, which mounted 1 guns, and took the hsien (district) city of Paoshan. On the 19th, after a slig resistance, the force gained possession of Shanghai, the officials and a large proportic of the inhabitants having fled the previous evening, although great preparations ha been made for the defence, 409 pieces of cannon being taken possession of by th British. The people, however, rapidly returned and business was resumed. The sam force afterwards captured Chapoo and Chinkiang, after which the fleet, havin blockaded the Imperial Canal and anchored opposite to Nanking, the treaty of Na king was signed, and the ports of Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai wen opened to trade. The city was evacuated on the 23rd June. The walls, three ar a half miles in circuit with seven gates, were erected at the time of the Japanes invasion, in the latter part of the sixteenth century.
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The ground selected by Captain Balfour, the first British Consul, for a Settlemer for his nationals lies about half a mile north of the city walls, between the Yangking pang and Soochow creeks, and extends backward from the river to what was till recentl
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