Directory_and_Chronicle_1894 — Page 504

SHANGHAI

The most northerly of the five ports opened to foreign trade by the British Treaty of Nanking is situate at the extreme south-east corner of the province of Kiang-su, in latitude 31.15 north and longitude 121.29 east of Greenwich, at the junction of the rivers Hwang-po and Woosung (the latter called by foreigners the Soochow Creek), about twelve miles above the village of Woosung, where 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, once a narrow canal, was, some eighteen 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 was, judging by old records, at one time at least three miles across, has now a breadth of less than 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. The bar is the cause of heavy Toss to shipowners and merchants through the detention of ocean steamers. After repeated efforts to induce the Chinese authorities to deepen it, an effort was made to cope with the evil by dredging, but after a few months' work it was found that the experiment must prove ineffective, and in September, 1892, it was abandoned as useless. Funds have now been promised to obtain the opinion of a European expert.

Shanghai-the name means "upper sea" or " near the sea"-is mentioned as existing in 249 B.C. It was a place of some importance in the eleventh century when it was made a Customs station, and became a hsien or third rate city in the fourteenth century. 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, and even two thousand years ago was celebrated as the seat of an extensive cotton manu- facturing industry. It was visited in 1832 by Mr. H. H. Lindsay, head of the late firm of Lindsay & Co., and the Rev. Chas. Gutzlaff, in the Lord Amherst, with a view of opening up trade. Mr. Lindsay says he counted upwards of four hundred junks passing inwards every day for seven days and found it possessed commodious wharves and large ware- houses. Three years later it was visited by the Rev. Dr. Medhurst, who confirmed the account given by Mr. Lindsay. On the 13th June, 1842, a British Fleet under Vice- Admiral Sir William Parker and a military force of 4,000 men under Sir Hugh Gough captured the Woosung Forts, which mounted 175 guns, and took the city of Paoshun. On the 19th after a slight resistance they gained possession of Shanghai, the officials and a large proportion of the inhabitants having fled the previous evening, although great preparations had been made for the defence, 406 pieces of cannon being taken possession of by the British. The people, however, rapidly returned and business was resumed. The same force afterwards captured Chinkiang and Hankow, when the treaty was arranged, and the ports of Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were opened to trade. The city was evacuated on the 23rd June.

The ground selected by Captain Balfour, the first British Consul, for a Settlement for his nationals, lies about half a mile north of the city walls, between the Yang-king- pang and Soochow Creeks, and extends backward 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. Some years were occupied in draining and laying out the ground, which was mostly a marsh with numerous ponds and creeks. The foreigners in the meantime lived at Namtao, a suburb between the city and the river, the British Consulate being in the sity. In two years a few houses were built in the Settlement, and by 1849 most foreigners had taken up their residence in it. By that time twenty-five firms were established, and the foreign residents numbered a hundred, including seven ladies. In that year the English Church was built, and on 21st November the foundation of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Tongkadoo was laid. The French were in 1849 granted the ground between the city walls and the British Concession on the same terms, and in exchange for help rendered in driving out the rebels who had seized the city in 1853 got