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of foresight exhibited by the founders of Hongkong in laying out the new city on its magnificent site. I am bound to confess that the "Shameen" (literally "Mudflat") as the European quarter of Canton is called, presents in this respect a striking contrast.
At the close of the last war with China in 1859, this Mud flat in the Pearl river was ceded to the allied English and French Governments.
A work of authority states: "Old residents in China will doubtless well remember the time when this 'Shameen' or 'Mud flat', was typical of all that was filthy, unsavoury, and dissolute; when it was covered with decrepit sheds of wood and bark, tottering on grimy piles over the stagnant swamp; and with crowded hovels inhabited by lepers, mendicants and thieves of the most miserable class." "When this site was occupied by the Allies," the hovels which covered it were removed, and an artificial island was created by building (upon piles driven into the river bed), a massive embankment...
"Shameen"
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