SHASI
市沙 Sha-si
Shasi (the "market on the sands") roughly 900 miles from the sea, is one of the ports opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) the official declaration of the opening being dated the 1st October, 1896. The port is about 85 miles below Ichang and is situated at the crossing point of two most important routes of commerce in Central China, namely, from east to west and from north to south and vice versa. It is reclaimed from the river by a magnificent system of dykes and canals. The district suffers periodically from the flooding of the Yangtsze. In August, 1931, the river rose to the record height of 35.3 feet, which was over 7 feet above the level of the Bund. The general commerce of the port has increased yearly since the Revolution, despite the adverse influence of the civil war during the past five or six years. The population, of the Port of Shasi numbers 94,233 persons, according to the latest census figures supplied by the Police. On the 9th and 10th May, 1898. a serious anti-foreign riot occurred at Shasi. The Customs Office and the residence of the Commissioner, the Customs boats, the premises of the China Merchants' Company and their hulk, the office of the Foreign Board, the Japanese Consulate, the premises occupied by the native agents of Messrs. Butterfield & Swire and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and a number of newly-erected Chinese houses were burnt by the mobs, kerosene oil being used to feed the conflagration, and the foreign residents were driven out of the port, narrowly escaping with their lives. The Custom-house was re-opened on the 1st July of the same year. In August, 1898, an area 3,800 Chinese feet in length, by 800 to 1,200 in breadth, lying along the riverside below the town, was assigned to Japan as a Japanese Concession but was not developed and much of the land on which it would have stood has since undergone erosion. The British Consulate was withdrawn in January, 1899, British interests being placed under the care of the Consul at Ichang. Calling steamers anchor in the river, which is very swift during the summer, and discharge and load at pontoons, but some bunding work, commenced in December, 1904, and finished in April, 1905, provided berths for three hulks, with jetties. The Native Customs were abolished on the 1st June, 1931. In December, 1913, a contract was entered into between the Chinese Government and the British firm of Pauling & Co. for the construction of a railway from a point opposite Shasi to Singyifu in the province of Kweichow via Changteh and Kwei- yang, with a branch from Changteh to Changsha. Good progress was made in the survey of this projected railway until the outbreak of the European war and conse- quent necessity for a temporary cessation of operations led to the recall of the en- gineers. It is reported that so many lakes and morasses lie in the direct survey of the Shasi-Changteh section that a détour to the west, through more productive coun- try, may be necessary. A telephone service was introduced in March, 1921. A motor bus service between Shasi-Hsiangyang was started in 1924, and the extension to Hankow in the east was completed in 1933, while bus services also run to Ichang in the west. Motor huses now leave Shasi daily at about 7 a.m. and reach Hankow soon after 4 p.m. on the same day. The trip by steamer from Hankow to Shasi takes from two to three days, by bus nine hours and by air one and half hours! The distance by water is nearly 300 miles and by air only one half as great, the numerous serpentine curves of the river being avoided by the plane. The Air-mail and passenger service between Shanghai and Ichang via Shasi was commenced in April 1931. Flights are made three times a week. A new and broad bund is under construction and other roads are contemplated. A private company supplies the Shasi public with electricity. The Hankow Press-packing Co. (Shasi Branch) started operations in September 1929, while the Shasi Cotton Testing Department of Hankow Bureau of Inspection and Testing for Commercial Commodities, a governmental organ, commenced work in October 1929. The SHASI Cotton Weaving and Spinning Factory was informally opened in May 1931 with a capital of $1,000,000. The Bank of China, Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank and Bank of Communications have branch offices at Shasi, besides a few other banking establishments.