Directory_and_Chronicle_1880 — Page 321

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SHANGHAI.

A

The most northerly of the five ports opened to foreign trade by the British Treaty of Nanking, is situated at the extreme south-east corner of the province of Kiang-u, in latitude 31.41 north, and longitude 126.29 east of Greenwich, at the junction of the rivers Woosung (called by foreigners the Sooc ow Creek) and Hwang-po, about twelve miles above the village of Woosung, wher their united waters debouch into the estuary of the Yangtsze. The soil is alluvial and the country perfectly flat, the nearest eminence that can be called a hill being distant about nineteen miles. The river opposite the city and foreign settlements, at one time a narrow canal, was, some twelve years ago, 1,800 feet broad at low wat r, but has been :apidly narrowing till it is now only 1,200 feet. The Soochow Creek, which is shown by old records to have been at one time at least three miles across, has now a breadth of only a hundred yards. The average water on the bar at high water springs at Woosung is nineteen feet, the greatest depth of late years being twenty-three feet.

Shanghai-the name means "upper sea" or "near the sea"--became a hsien or third rate city in the fourteenth century, and the walls, which are three and a half miles in circuit, with seven gates, were erected at the time of the Japanese invasion, in the latter part of the sixteenth century. It had been an important seat of trade for many centuries before the incursion of foreigners.

The round selected by Captain Balfour, the first British Consul, for a Settle- ment for his nationals, lies about half a mile north of the city walls, between the Yang-king-rang and Soochow Creeks, and now extends backwards from the river to a ditch connecting the two, called the Defence Creek, thus forming what may be called an island, a mile square. The port was formally declared open to trade on the 17th November, 1843. The French subsequently settled on the ground between the city walls and the Brit sh Concession, and in exchange for help rendered in driving out the rebels who had seized the city in 1853, got a grant of the land extending for about a mile to the south between the city walls and the river. They have since by purchase extended the bounds of the concession westward to the "Ningpo Joss House," a mile from the river. Later on the Americaus rented land immediately north of Soochow Creek, in the district called Hongkew, so that the ground now occupied by foreigners extends for about four miles on the left bank of the river. Most of the land at Pootung, on the opposite bank, is now also rented by foreigners. All ground belongs nominally to the Chinese Government, but is rented in perpetuity, a tax of fifteen hundred copper cash per mow being paid to the Government annually. About six mow equal one English acre.

The approach by sea to Shanghai is now well lighted and buoyed, and, although it has not yet become, as Mr Inspector-General Hart stated in one of his despatches it would, "as safe as a walk down Regent Street when the gas is lit," the dangers of the ever shitting banks and shoals are as well guarded as can be expected. Under the superintendence of the Engineering department of the Customs, light-bouses have been erected on West Volcano, Shaweishan, North Saddle, and Gutzlaff Islands, and at Woosung. There are also two lightships in the Yangtsze below Woosung.

As a port for foreign trade Shanghai grew but gradually until it gained a great impetus by the opening in 1861 of the Yangtsze and Northern ports, secured by the Treaty of Tientsin, and subsequently by the opening up of Japan. The first event of importance since the advent of foreigners was the taking of the city by a band of rebels in 1853, who held it for seventeen months. This caused a large number of refugees to seek shelter within the foreign settlements, and the price of land rose very considerably. Owing to the occupation of the city the authorities were powerless to collect the duties, and it was in consequence agreed between the Taotai and the three Consuls (British, French, and United States) that they should be collected under foreign control. This was found to work so much to the advantage of the Chinese Govern- ment that the system was extended subsequently to the Treaty of Tientsin to all the

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