Directory_and_Chronicle_1881 — Page 320

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SHANGHAI.

The most northerly of the five ports opened to foreign trade by the British Treaty of N..nking, is situate at the extreme south-east corner of the province of Kiang-su, in latitude 31.41 north, and longitude 126.29 east of Greenwich, at the junction of the rivers Hwang-po aud Woosung, (the latter called by foreigners the Soochow Creek,) about twelve miles above the village of Woosung, where their united waters debouch into the e tuary of the Yangtsze. The soil is alluvial and the country perfectly flat, the nearest eminence that can be called a hill being distaut about nineteen miles. The river opposite the city and foreign settlements, once a narrow canal, was, some twelve years ago, 1,800 feet broad at low water, but has been rapidly 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, bas now a breadth of only a hundred yards. The average water on the bar at Woosung at high water springs is nineteen feet, the greatest depth of late years being twenty-three feet. Repeated efforts have been made to induce the Chinese authorities to deepen the bar, which is the cause of heavy loss to shipowners and merc ants through the detention of ocean steamers. As there appears no chance of their doing so except under compulsion, which foreign governments seem disinclined to use, the foreign residents have agreed to tax their trade for the purpose, and the proposal is now under the consideration of the Ministers at Peking.

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near the sea -became a hsien or Shangbai-the name means upper sea 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 ground 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-pang 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 British 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 Americans 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 nomiually to the Emperor of China, but is rented in perpetuity, a tax of fifteen hundred copper cash, equal to about a dollar and a quarter, 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 bis despatches it would, "as safe as a walk down Regent Street when the gas is lit," the dangers of the ever shifting banks and shoals are as well guarded as can be expected. Under the superintendence of the Engineering department of the Customs, light-houses have been erected on West Volcano, Showeishan, North Saddle, and Gutzlaff Is'ands, 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 a further increase by the opening up of Japan. The first eveut 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

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