Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 567

SHANGHAI

A167

rectness of his views. Mr. von Heidenstam proved a most able successor, and his broad views have been of great value. He retired owing to ill health in 1928, and was succeeded by Dr. H. Chatley, M. INST.C.E.

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, Changshi, 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 concentrated at the mouth of the Liu-ho, now an insignificant creek which, passing T'aitsang, joins the Yangtsze some twenty-five miles above Woosung.

With the silting up of the Liu-ho and its eventual extinction as a navi- gable channel, largely brought about apparently by the opening of the Whangpoo 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. Lind- say. 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 Nanking 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 Yangkingpang and Soochow creeks, and extends backward from the river to what was till recently a ditch connecting the two, afterwards called the Defence Creek, thus forming what may be termed an island a mile square. Both the Yangkingpang and the Defence Creek have now been cul- verted and made into broad roadways, known respectively as Avenue Edward VII. and Thibet Road. 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 Nantao, a suburb between the city and the river, the British Consulate being in the city. In two years a few houses were built in the Settlement, and by 1849 most foreigners had taken up their

.