Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 875

SHANGHAI

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with plans and estimates, which was approved by all concerned but could not be started owing to lack of funds. A practical scheme for the carrying out of Mr. von Heiden- stam's project was ultimately evolved by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. This was based on the levying of 3 per cent. Conservancy tax on all Customs duties and 14 per mille of value on duty-free imported or exported goods, the administration to be carried on by a Board consisting of the Shanghai Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, the Commissioner of Customs and the Harbour Master. After lengthy negotiations during 1911 and 1912, this scheme, with some minor amendments, was approved by the Government in April, 1912. The scheme was put into operation on May 15th, 1912, and Mr. von Heidenstam's project is gradually being carried out. A new parallel jetty on the eastern side of the former Outer Bar, training-works in the Upper River, and the dredging of some 4,600,000 cubic yards, mostly at Pheasant Point and in Astraa Channel, have already been executed. The former Outer and Inner Bars, where only 16 and 14 feet of water were available in 1907, have thus been eliminated, and the shallowest reach-the Astrea Channel-is now (1915) over 24 feet deep over a width of from 400 to 600 feet in the narrowest places. The income of the Board through the new tax has averaged some 500,000 tuels a year, and the work is now proceeding satis- factorily.

Under the control of the Coast-Lighting department of the Maritime Customs and out of the tonnage dues provided in the original treaties with China, the approaches from the sea to Shanghai are now well lighted and buoyed, and the dangers of the continually shifting banks and shoals well guarded against." Lighthouses have been erected, served by powerful lights, at West Volcano, Shaweishan, -North Saddle, Bonham and Steep Islands, Pehyu-shan, Gutzlaff and Woosung, and there are two lightships in the entrance of the River Yangtze. In this respect the interests of the shipping frequenting the port have been well considered, and the entire installation takes a high rank amongst similar undertakings elsewhere. The sanie department has also inaugurated a system of buoys and lighting on the Yangtze as far as Hankow, six hundred miles above Woosung, admirably suited to present requirements. The northern mouth of the Yangtsze, which serves as the main passage for coasting steamers from Shanghai to the northern ports, has also been carefully surveyed and buoyed and lighted by the same authority.

HISTORY

The origin of the name "Shanghai," which literally means "Upper Sea," has been much debated, but probably like Kaoch'ang, "High Reeds," and Kiangwan, "River Bend," names still existing in the neighbourhood, was merely the vernacular title given to the place when still an island at the mouth of the Yangtze. It does not appear in history till the time of the Mongol Empire. We find at various periods from after Han downwards that K'wenshan, Changshu, Kiating, etc., were constituted into separate hsiens, and that in the year 1292 Shanghai was likewise erected into a separate district and placed under Sungkiang-fu, which itself had only fifteen years previously been divided from Kiahsing-fu, now in the province of Chekiang. Prior to that it had been made a Customs station on account of its favourable position for trade, but its growth had been slow, and for centuries the chief trade of the lower district had been con- centrated at the mouth of the Liu-ho, now an insignificant creek which, passing T'ait- sang, joins the Yangtze some twenty-five miles above Woosung.

With the silting up of the Liu-ho and its eventual extinction as a navigable channel, largely brought about apparently by the opening of the Hwangpu before alluded to, Shanghai became the principal shipping port of this region; and such it had been for some centuries when it was visited in 1832 by Mr. H. H. Lindsay, hear of the late firm of Lindsay & Co., accompanied by the Rev. Chas. Gutzlaff, in the Lord Amherst, with a view to opening up trade, and from that time begins its modern history. Mr. Lindsay in his report of the visit says that he counted upwards of four hundred junks passing inwards every day for seven days, and found the place possessed commodious wharves and large warehouses. Three years later it was visited by 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 hsien (district) city of Paoshan. On the 19th, after a slight resistance, the force 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, 409 pieces of cannon being taken possession of by the British. The people, however, rapidly returned and business was resumed. The same force afterwards captured Chapoo and Chinkiang, after which the fleet, having