Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 795

F

SHANGHAI

723

•

temporary work-programme for the further improvement of the Whangpoo was made by Mr. von Heidenstam in 1921 and adopted in 1922, pending the decision as to the larger scheme referred to above. A new large dredger and nuid-pump were acquired in 1922 and 1923 with auxiliary craft. The Whangpoo will accordingly be improved so as to have a navigational channel with 30 ft. depth at lowest low-water and 36-40 ft. at high water. During 1924 dredging was proceeding at the rate of about 2,000,000 cubic yards per annum, all the mud being used for reclaimings.

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 Yangtsze. 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 Yangtsze as far as Hankow, six hundred miles above Woosung, suited to present requirements. The u rthern

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 Yangtsze. 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 crected 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'ai- tsang, joins the Yangtsze 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, head 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 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 blockaded the Imperial Canal and anchored opposite to Nanking, the treaty of Nan- king was signed, and the ports of Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai were opened to trade. The city was evacuated on the 23rd June. The walls, 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.

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 Yangking- pang and Soochow creeks, and extends backward from the river to what was till recently

Page 795Page 796