Directory_and_Chronicle_1922 — Page 797

SHANGHAI

727

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 now well advanced. A new parallel jetty on the eastern side of the former Outer Bar, training-works in the Upper River, and the dredging of some 7,000,000 cubic yards, mostly at convexes and in the Astræa 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 in the whole river is now over 24 feet

over 24 feet deep over a width of 600 feet in the narrowest places. In 1915 and 1916 the narrow reach at the Chinese City at Nantao was widened by dredging, and a new bund, which is later to be lined with pontoons and godowns, created for the Chinese City. Towards the end of 1916 the Board acquired the first installation of its own dredging plant, consisting of one powerful bucket dredger, one pumping plant for pumping dredged material from the barges into reclaimings ashore, and several sets of tugs and barges to form the necessary transport fleet. A second, smaller, unit is also completed, and two large grab-dredgers have been added. Many riparian reclamations have been, and are being, executed by the Board for frontagers. Detailed hydrographic observa- tions of the river are made continuously and an investigation of the Yangtsze estuary has been carried out, The income of the Board through the new tax amounted to some 780,000 taels during 1920, and the work is now proceeding satisfactorily. At the end of 1921, Mr. von Heidenstam's project, started in 1912, was practically completed, at a cost of about five million Taels, as against the estimate of six millions.

Mr. von Heidenstam and two eminent consulting hydraulic engineers, at home, in a report entitled "The Future Development of the Shanghai Harbour," dated April, 1918, addressed to the Board, strongly urged an investigation of the possibilities of developing Shanghai as a first-class port for deep draught steamers. The Consultative Board and the various Chambers of Commerce gave their whole-hearted support to the proposal of these engineers, and a full and complete investigation of the technical factors of further developing Shanghai as a first-class port is now being carried on by the Board at an estimated cost of 350,000 Taels. The programme includes the investigation of all possible solutions and the submission of the results to an International Committee of Experts, which was scheduled to meet in the Autumn of 1921 at Shanghai for a sitting of one or two months. Several reports on physical and engineering data have been issued, including a statistical survey ("The Port of Shanghai") and many valuable reports on the hydrology of the Yangtsze estuary and Hangchow Bay, as well as a series of maps of the approaches to the Port and the Harbour.

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 same department has also inaugurated a system of buoys and lighting on the Yangtze as far as Hankow, six hundred miles above Woosung, suited to present requirements. The northern mouth of the 'South Branch' 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