Directory_and_Chronicle_1914 — Page 892

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SHANGHAI

Settlement by eight bridges crossing the Yang-king-pang. Six new bridges were erected in 1901 to connect the extended Settlements. There are 59 bridges within the Settlements. A new steel bridge over the mouth of the Soochow Creek was completed in 1908, replacing the wooden "Garden Bridge" erected in 1873. It has two equal spans of 171' 2", the width is 60 feet with a carriage way of 36 feet 9 inches; the gradient of the approaches is 1 in 30; the headway above high-water from 6' 6" to 11". It has been proposed to culvert and fill in the Creek between the General and French Settlements and to make a broad thoroughfare along its line, but the scheme is in abeyance. There are several good driving roads extending into the country, two leading to Sicawei, a distance of about six miles, and one to Jessfield by the banks of the Soochow Creek, for five miles, with an extension measuring some thirteen miles to the extreme limits of the Shanghai hsein district. A scheme for the construction of a road from Sicawei to the hills, eighteen miles, has been sanctioned, and marked out, but owing to official obstruction it has not yet been commenced. Another broad thoroughfare, Yangtzepoo Road, runs by the side of the river for five miles, which it is intended ultimately to extend to Woosung. The termini of Jessfield Road and Yangtzepoo Road now mark the limits in their separate directions of the Foreign Settlements. The land for a new road from Sicawei to Jessfield was acquired in 1905. Several other roads have been proposed, but although foreigners are prepared to pay high prices for the land the opposition of the officials has hitherto prevented their construction. Now, however, by the granting of the extension of the Settlements the Municipal Council has the right to build and police roads in certain adjacent districts. In 1913 the roads maintained by the Council measured 136 miles. At the time the Taipings approached Shanghai, some roads for the passage of artillery were made by the British military authorities at the expense of the Chinese Government, one of them extending for seventeen miles into the country; but, excepting those close to the Settlement, they have now been turned into ploughed fields. The foreshore in front of the Settlement has been reclaimed, raised, turfed, and planted with shrubs, and forms a delightful and spacious promenade. The trees planted some years ago having now attained a good height, and several more imposing buildings having been completed, the English and French Bunds form as magnificent a boulevard as any in the East,

Many foreign houses, some with several mow of garden ground, have been, and more are still being, erected near the outside roads, especially on the Bubbling Well, Sicawei, and Sinza Roads, which are the main outlets from the settlement, and from which most of the other roads branch off. These roads are planted with trees on both sides, forming fine avenues of about five miles in length. A small but well laid-out and admirably kept Public Garden was formed about 1868 on land recovered from the river in front of the British Consulate. It has been considerably extended in area by reclaiming the foreshore, and a further extension of five and a half mow by diverting the Soochow Creek was completed in 1905. A general Public Garden, intended for Chinese, eight mow in extent, by the bank of the Soochow Creek, was opened in December, 1890. A Park measuring 364 ft. by 216 ft. is laid out in Hongkew. The Public Recreation Ground has also been thoroughly drained, turfed and laid out, in spaces not devoted to sport, with flower-beds.

Immense sums have been wasted in various attempts to drain the settlements, principally from the want of skilled direction; but the great difficulties in this matter arising from the low-lying and level nature of the ground have now been fairly overcome though very much work of this nature has still to be undertaken in the recently-acquired area. The settlements are well provided with telephonic fire alarms. The desire of the Municipal Councils to keep the monopoly in their own hands retarded for many years the inauguration of waterworks, but a public company is now established, which furnishes a continuous supply of filtered water at moderate rates, and so successful has it been that the capital has now been double. A separate system of waterworks for the French Concession has been inaugurated, and Chinese waterworks, to supply the native city, were completed in September, 1899, The electric light was introduced in 1882, and are lamps are erected on all the principal thorough- fares and wharves. In 1893 the Municipality purchased the property and business of the Electric Company, but the administration of the Electric Light Department has not given entire satisfaction. The French Municipality has an excellent electric light service, and the native Bund is lighed by a Chinese Electric Light Company,

Shanghai can boast of several fine buildings of various and varied styles of architecture. The first English church, built in 1847, did not long exist, for in 1850 the