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The walls of Shinghải were first built about three centuries ago. There is extant a memorial addressed to the emperor Kiátsing, re- questing permission ching chí, “to city it," that is, to surround the place with walls. The principal reason assigned for this measure, was the exposed position of its inhabitants, they being constantly liable to suffer depredations from robbers and pirates, who then infested the country. Shánghái had long been a market place of some importance; its population and commerce were increasing, and it had been repeatedly mentioned in the histories of preceding .dynasties. But in those early days it was not the principal mart for the inhabitants of these regions. In the lapse of time, however, the course of the rivers had changed, and the tide of population and of business had set in this direction. Being still unprotected by any walls, the inhabitants were continually in jeopardy from free-booters. So late as in the time of the Yuen dynasty the town was repeatedly over-run by Japanese pirates. The memorial, setting forth these circumstances had the desired effect. The emperor gave his con- sent and the necessary directions through the proper channel, the Board of Public Works. The walls soon went up, the good people freely making large contributions to the public chest for that
purpose.
Their circumference, in the Chinese account of the city, is estimat- ed to be nine lí. By engineers connected with the British expedition under Sir Hugh Gough, in 1842, their entire circuit is put down at three miles and three quarters (32 miles). The form of the site enclosed is neither square nor round; nor does it exhibit any per- fect figure. The longest line drawn from side to side through the centre, would run from the north-west to the south-east; and said line would exceed by one third a second drawn due east and west and by one quarter a third running from south-west to north-east, both the latter passing through the same central point. Indeed, no cousi- derable portion of the wall on either side, presents a right line, or an exact curve, and the whole structure is but a poor specimen of engineering.
Their original height was eighteen or twenty feet, and in some parts at present it does not exceed that limit, though five feet were added about the close of the Ming dynasty, a little more than two centuries ago.
Their breadth varies more than their height. At first there was but a single outer wall raised, and the earth thrown up against it on the inner side. Subsequently, however, an inner wall was raised on
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