[ { "id": 207020, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "FATHER ERNESTO GHERZI, S.J., 1886 - 1973 AN APPRECIATION\n\nG. J. BELL*\n\nIn the Bulletin de Geophysique No. 34 from the College Jean-de-Brebeuf, Montreal there was enclosed a notice of the death of Father Ernesto Gherzi, S.J. at Saint-Jerome, Quebec. He died on 6 December 1973 at the age of 87 years and 4 months. Fr Gherzi was a very well known and popular figure on the China coast between the years 1910 and 1954. He made notable contributions to the science and practice of seismology and meteorology while at Zikawei Observatory, Shanghai from where he operated an efficient typhoon warning service. He was a colourful character who made a great impression on all those who met him and he is remembered with affection by very many mariners and aviators—both military and civil—who served in the Far East in the thirty years prior to 1954.\n\nEARLY YEARS\n\nFr Gherzi was born in San Remo, Italy on 8 August 1886. In October 1903 he joined the Society of Jesus, an order whose members had made great contributions to geophysics and meteorology at their Observatories at Zikawei and Manila. He was posted to Zikawei for the period 1910-13 after which he went to England to work with Appleton on ionospheric studies for the Admiralty, London. He was ordained in England in June 1916 and returned to China in October 1920 to start his long scientific career in the famous meteorological, seismological and magnetic observatory at Zikawei.\n\nThe Zikawei Observatory was supported by grants from the Chinese Customs, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, the Shanghai municipality and the telegraph companies; in return it provided time signals, weather forecasts and magnetic data for shipping. Fr Gherzi produced annual summaries of typhoon tracks for 1926 and for the years 1928 to 1940; they were addressed to the\n\n* Mr. Bell has been Director of the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong, since 1965. This article first appeared in Weather, Volume 29, No. 5 (May 1974).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209403, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "38\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nPublic Meetings and the voters\n\nI have already quoted some of the articles from the 1845 Land Regulations which dealt with the meetings of landrenters.\n\nThese provisions were still rather crude, but in the 1854 Land Regulations they were refined in the tenth article, and in those of 1869 in articles IX, X, XV, XVIII and XIX. Moreover to the 1869 Land Regulations were added \"Rules of Procedure to be observed at Meetings of Ratepayers\". In article IX it was laid down that \"it being expedient and necessary for the better order and good government of the Settlement that some provision should be made for the appointment of an executive Committee or Council, and for the construction of public works and keeping the same in repair the Foreign Treaty Consuls,\n\nL\n\n1\n\nP\n\nor a majority of them, shall, during the month of February or March in each year, and so early in the same as possible, fix the date for the election of the Executive Committee or Council and shall also during the said months give notice of a public meeting to be held within twenty-one days of such notice, to devise ways and means of raising the requisite funds for these purposes\"; and article XV provided that \"it shall be competent for the Foreign Consuls, collectively or singly, when it may appear to them needful, or for the electors, provided not less that twenty-five agree in writing so to do, to call a public meeting at any time, for the consideration of any matter or thing connected with the Municipality”.\n\nMost Public Meetings up to 1896 were probably held at the British Consulate, although a small number were convened elsewhere. The very first one was in Richard's Hotel on December 22, 1846; later some were held at the Shanghai Library (on April 8, 1861 and August 18, 1864). In 1896 a Town Hall was completed (a new one being opened in 1922) and from that date most meetings took place there. Most of the time the British consul was in the chair.\n\nEarlier we saw that foreign residents thought that municipal government ought to be based on mutual agreement and consensus; but, it might well be asked, whose agreement? In other words: who were allowed to participate in the elections and discussions at Public Meetings?\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209415, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "50\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nfunction very well and in 1925 there were fresh cries for Chinese representation.\n\nThis time the direct cause was the May 30th incident and as a result of numerous Chinese protests, demonstrations and strikes which took place at that time, the Municipal Council understood that the Chinese could no longer be barred from membership.\n\nIn 1927, for the first time in the Settlement's history, three Chinese took their seats on the once exclusively foreign Shanghai Municipal Council and three years later their number was increased to five.\n\nAll members were chosen by the Chinese Ratepayers Association, mostly from industrial and commercial circles so that the Chinese members came from the same business background as the foreign members.\n\nThus the electoral basis for Chinese differed materially from that for foreigners, which was understandable from the foreign point of view, for direct election would have meant that eventually the Council would become Chinese dominated. Besides, it suited most Chinese guilds and other business circles which were not used to open voting procedures, but preferred to be represented on an indirect functional basis. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that in the neighbouring Chinese Greater Shanghai Municipality, established in the same year of 1927, there also was an appointed Municipal Council.\n\nThe elections\n\nIn contrast to most governments and municipal councils in other countries, the Shanghai Municipal Council tenure of office was for only one year. Until 1865 the Councils were elected at a Public Meeting which was held especially for that purpose, as well as to discuss the budget (first introduced in 1854) and other financial and municipal matters. In the early years the months in which these electoral meetings were held varied, some being convened in January (1856, 1857, 1859), some in February (1858, 1860), March (1849, 1855, 1862), April (1863, 1864), May (1852), June (1851), July (1854) or August (1850). The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209423, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "58\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nSeventy years later it was complained that \"official business in this important municipality is conducted in secret. Members of the Municipal Council are bound not to disclose matters discussed in meetings and no reporter of a local newspaper has ever attended a meeting of the Council. The Council does issue a so-called Municipal Gazette, probably the dullest official journal in the world, which contains brief reports usually starting out \"Notice is hereby given\" or \"I have the honour to convey\n\netc.\"\n100\n\nNow it is, of course, true that in Western countries with a parliamentary government, meetings of the cabinet or other governing bodies were (and are) not open to the public. But there the rulers were responsible to representatives of the people, be it in parliament or its local equivalent. Nothing of the kind happened in Shanghai, which apart from the other structural and institutional regulations which halted democracy as understood elsewhere, made the whole administrative system come to be looked upon as oligarchic.\n\nSummary\n\nSummarizing this article we might say that the Settlement government rested on a base which became increasingly outmoded in Western countries where democracy allowed ever more people to participate in politics. Franchise according to tax paid was gradually abolished in the West, but in the International Settlement at Shanghai it remained till the last day of its existence. In the beginning, consent of all residents was claimed to be the foundation of municipal government, but as time progressed the administration degenerated into an oligarchy with or without the negative implications which the term suggests. Political interest was low and nobody really tried to change the system. Though Justice Feetham published a massive report about the situation in the Settlement and offered valuable advice in 1931, nothing was done. Only in the heyday of Chinese nationalism were some minor facelifts agreed, without altering any of the fundamentals.\n\nIt was only after the return of the Settlement to China in 1943 and especially after the communist takeover in 1949 that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209424, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "59\n\nSerious measures were taken to change the whole social and political structure of the town.\n\nNOTES\n\nPreliminary note:\n\nAlthough the present paper is to a great extent based on fresh research, the following works have been of considerable use as they contain material about the government of the International Settlement:\n\nFeetham, Justice Richard: \"Report to the Shanghai Municipal Council\" 1931-1932.\n\nJohnstone, W.C.: \"The Shanghai Problem\", 1937.\n\nJones, F.C.: \"Shanghai and Tientsin\", 1940.\n\nKotenev, A.M.: \"Shanghai, its Mixed Court and Council\", 1925.\n\nMontalto de Jesus, C.A.: \"Historic Shanghai\", 1909.\n\nPort, F.L. Hawks: \"A short history of Shanghai\", 1928.\n\n1 The International Settlement at Shanghai was formed in 1863 by the amalgamation of the original British Settlement (formed in 1845, but later increased in area) with the so-called American Settlement in the Hongkew area which had grown up without formal establishment in the 1850s, and early 1860s, and which had been formally recognised by the Chinese earlier in 1863. The French Settlement (formed in 1849) always remained separate from the International Settlement. Outside the area of the foreign settlements lay the old Chinese city and suburbs: these remained under Chinese rule, and became subject to the Greater Shanghai Municipality when that was set up by the Chinese authorities in 1927.\n\n* Cf also Treaty of the Bogue, article VII, \"ground and houses, the rent of which is to be fairly and equitably arranged for, shall be set apart by the local officers in communication with the Consul.\"\n\n3\n\nPopulation figures for intermediate years are, 1,666 foreigners and 75,047 Chinese in 1870, and 6,774 foreigners and 345,276 Chinese in 1900. Of the 13,536 foreigners resident in 1910, 4,465 were British, 940 Americans and 3,361 Japanese. Of the 38,940 foreigners resident in 1935 no fewer than 20,242 were Japanese, as against 6,596 British and 2,015 Americans.\n\n+ * Text of the 1845 Land Regulations (LR) is in Shanghai Almanac 1853.\n\nIt is not too fanciful to suppose that persons willing to move to as remote a place as Shanghai in the 1840s were likely to be particularly strongly imbued with the contemporary belief in individualism, with its consequent hatred of despotism and paternalism; this almost certainly assisted in the speedy breakdown of the 1845 Land Regulations to something far more individualistic in tone.\n\n• North China Herald (NCH) 30.7.1853.\n\n* J.H. Haan: \"De opkomst van de International Settlement te Shanghai 1845-1865. Een historisch — politicologische analyse\" (\"The rise of the International Settlement at Shanghai. A historical-political analysis\"), unpublished manuscript University of Amsterdam, 1977; chapter II. Cited as Haan \"Shanghai\".\n\nCf NCH 22.7.1854; text of draft LR in NCH 30.7.1853, 27.8.1853; final version in 8.7.1854.\n\nNCH 22.4.1865.\n\n10 NCH 17.3.1866.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212212, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 154, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "―\n\n131\n\nEast. Thirty-five million tons of shipping entered the port each year, carrying twenty-five per cent of the trade of China. The vast town was controlled by three independent authorities: the International Settlement, where British and American influence predominated; the French Concession, mostly residential; and the Chinese Municipality. A polyglot population of between four and five million Chinese, and fifty thousand foreigners, thronged the streets. The war had brought about a great shift of population from the Chinese area, where residents were exposed to Japanese oppression, to the comparative safety of the two foreign areas, whose Chinese inhabitants increased from 1½ millions to 4 millions, resulting in a heavy congestion.\n\nIt was a far cry back to those days in 1845, when in the British Concession, before it was amalgamated with the American district to form the International Settlement, the British Consul appointed \"three upright merchants\" to act as a Committee of Roads and Jetties to supervise the inconsiderable municipal needs of a small community living on a mud bank. From those simple beginnings had grown the proficient machine required to cope with the extensive complexities of a unique metropolis.\n\nH.G.W. Woodhead, the talented editor of \"Oriental Affairs\", described the functions of the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, and I cannot do better than quote his words:\n\n\"Owing to its peculiar status as a sort of 'imperium in imperio', the Shanghai Municipality has had to shoulder various responsibilities that in other countries would be assumed wholly or in part by the State. For example, it maintains its own Defence Force, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, and a highly efficient professional Russian unit. It maintains, what, for the average daily number of prisoners, is the largest gaol in the world. It maintains or makes substantial grants in aid to many hospitals. It started subsidizing Foreign education in 1880, and Chinese education in 1900, and now operates, or makes grants in aid, to numerous Foreign and Chinese schools. It has an Industrial Section, which concerns itself with labour problems, and also controls the rickshaw business to the extent of limiting hire charges, and providing for welfare work among the pullers. It maintains a public library and a municipal orchestra and an up-to-date Public Health Department. And it finances these and other important activities such as Policing, the Fire Brigade, Public Works, etc., mainly from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212216, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "135\n\nPolice Station, and were allocated various districts to patrol. We worked in pairs. Sometimes a regular French policeman accompanied us, in addition to several Chinese constables of the French Police Force. We would walk along as the spirit moved us; and on arriving at a cross-roads would take up a position in the middle of the street, cock our pistols, and stop all cars to look inside them. The idea of this was to catch kidnappers, as they usually carried off their gagged victims by car. One day we stopped a large car, only to find the venerable Mr. Yu Ya Ching in it. He was the senior of the five Chinese representatives on the Municipal Council. I do not know who was the more astonished, he or we! On another occasion when we looked into a car we found a complete thuggery of Russian gunmen; there is a large White Russian community in Shanghai, a survival of the Russian revolution, and many of the men were engaged by rich Chinese as bodyguards. They looked ugly, as if they were more used to holding people up themselves than being held up. The next car turned out to contain the puppet Mayor of the Chinese Municipality, who durst not venture abroad without a heavy escort. All passed off with mutual compliments. In my time we fortunately never ran into a real gangster: I have difficulty in hitting a haystack even with a snug little weapon, let alone with so heavy a piece of ancient ironmongery.\n\nUntil about 10 p.m. a heavy traffic would continue in the Avenue Joffre, the main highway on our beat. Sometimes, when we went out on bicycles, a form of sport to which I had been unaccustomed for at least a quarter of a century. I found it rather tricky moving in patrol formation amidst the traffic. If we came across an obstreperous drunk, we would turn tactfully in the opposite direction. It at least gave the Chinese some confidence to see armed foreign patrols out at night, a confidence which, I fear, may have been exaggerated. Sometimes we would stand at the corner of the street, at about the time the cinemas came out, and watch our families go home; and, when the time was up, we might go into that little bar on the ground floor of the Cathay Mansions for a bottle of \"Ewo\" Beer.\n\nAt the police station the French Municipality provided sandwiches, crumbly French rolls split in half, buttered, and holding a slice of ham, which we would munch, while our leader made his report. Then early in the morning we would go home, feeling we had earned our sleep.\n\nThe cinemas of Shanghai are as luxurious as any in the world.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212655, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "190\n\nFr. Decooman who succeeded Becquaert as an entomologist, was appointed Director of the Museum after the war. He did not belong to the same Society or Order as his predecessors. He was a member of a Belgian Order. He had come from Vietnam (French Indo-China) where he had spent some 40 years. As a missionary in remote areas, he spent his free time collecting insects. He was a trained entomologist, specializing in the Scaritidae family. He first directed his attention to reorganizing the museum that had suffered neglect by his predecessor and had thousands of insects mounted from collections still lying unpacked in the drawers. He also looked for manuscripts which could be published. At that time, I was part-time in charge of the Botany Section of the Museum, Fr. Decooman approached me and suggested that I should prepare Belval's manuscript as well as one of my own: Trees and Shrubs of Shanghai for publishing. I was working on these two projects when I met the young Hsu Pin-shen, already a keen botanist, now Professor and President of the Botany Department in Shanghai and in all China. We worked together on the Trees and Shrubs of Shanghai; that was in 1950-52. Needless to say, the events that followed did not allow the publication of these two manuscripts. But between Hsu Pin-shen and myself, a lasting friendship had developed which was delightfully revived when Prof. Hsu kindly invited me to spend a month with him at Fudan University.\n\nThe purpose of my visit to Shanghai is actually to update not exactly Belval's manuscript but one based on it; one more complete and developed, written by my colleague Paul August and to which I contributed as we were working in collaboration. Besides updating the manuscript, I must also include the section on the Pteridophytes which was lacking in both manuscripts. To this effect, I was invited by Prof. Zhan Sho-Ling and the municipality of Shanghai to spend six months here, in this country which was for 18 years my country of adoption. The project is sponsored by the University of Melbourne and funded by The Australia-China Council. My work so far has been made easy, thanks to the great help given to me by the Museum of Natural History and to the friendly collaboration of the office staff.\n\nI must thank Prof. Hsu and my colleagues at the Botany Department for the invaluable help they have been giving me. But their acceptance of an old foreigner among the staff, the attention and friendship they have shown to me will be valued much more and will last as long as I live.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215765, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Transitional wares and their forerunners.\n\nHong Kong: Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 1981.\n\nKotenev, Anatol M.\n\n+\n\nShanghai: its mixed court and council: materials relating to the history of the Shanghai Municipal Council and the history, practice and statistics of the International Mixed Court, Chinese modern law and Shanghai municipal land regulations and bye-laws governing the life in the settlement. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1925.\n\nKotenev, Anatol M.\n\nShanghai: its municipality and the Chinese. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1927.\n\nLam, Susan YY. and Sze, Jane\n\nPast visions of the future: some perspectives on the history of the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2001.\n\nLiao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang\n\nXianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 1, Jiao yu xue pian. Xianggang : Xianggang ke ji da xue Hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001.\n\nLiao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang\n\nXianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 2, Tian ye yu wen xian pian. Xianggang: Xianggang ke ji da xue hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001.\n\nLiao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang\n\nXianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 3, Tian ye yu wen xian pian. Xianggang: Xianggang ke ji da xue hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001.\n\nLee, Kuan Yew\n\nMemoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Tai-bei: Shi jie shu ju, 2000.\n\nLiang, Ellen Johnston\n\nArt and aesthetics in Chinese popular prints: selections from the Muban Foundation collection. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002.\n\nlv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216307, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "15\n\nHOW OLD IS SHANGHAI'S LONGHUA TEMPLE?\n\nERIC N. DANIELSON ·\n\nShanghai's Longhua Temple (Longhua Si) is a functioning Buddhist temple with a large resident monk population belonging to the Chan sect (Chan zong) of Mahayana Buddhism. It is by far the largest one in Shanghai, and probably counts among the largest in China. Located southwest of the Xujiahui shopping district, the main temple complex sits on the north side of Longhua Lu, while its seven-story pagoda stands by itself across the street on the south side. Although it has often been said by many authors that this is supposedly the only pagoda in Shanghai, that is true only if one has a very narrow definition of what Shanghai is. Within the Shanghai Municipality (Shanghai Shi) there are a total of 16 historic pagodas, the other 15 being of equal age and historical authenticity but located out in the surrounding counties of Songjiang, Qingpu, and Jiading.\n\nThe temple's long history\n\nLonghua Si undoubtedly has a long history, but the question is how long? The answer is debatable. In all likelihood, it is about 900 years old, rather than the 1800 years sometimes claimed for it. Very little evidence exists to support the often heard claims that the temple and pagoda were supposedly first built in 242 A.D. and 247 A.D. by Sun Quan, the King of Wu, during the Three Kingdoms (San Guo). Furthermore, maps of Shanghai's geological history contained in Zhou Zhen He's 1999 Shanghai Lishi Ditu Ji show that most of this area was underwater until the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Some sources also make vague claims that the temple was built by the Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Ze Tian sometime during her reign (690-705 A.D.), but later destroyed at some unspecified date during the rebellion of Huang Zhao (879-884 A.D.) against the Tang Xi Zong Emperor (873-888). The first specific year to appear in most accounts is a supposed rebuilding of a new temple on the same site as the earlier San Guo and Tang temples by the Wu Yue regional kingdom in 977 A.D. If these earlier versions of Longhua Temple did in fact exist, they were ephemeral and have left no lasting traces.\n\nSubstantial documented evidence of the temple's origins begins to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "21\n\nof the temple complex.\n\nOne other positive result of the new development is that the section of Longhua Lu which passes in between the walled temple compound and the pagoda has now been closed to vehicular traffic, unless you count motorcycles, and turned into a pedestrian mall.\n\nLonghua Temple's current structures\n\nThe 40 meter high octagonal wooden pagoda, Longhua Ta, has orange walls with red cross timbers, upturned eaves and wood railing balconies at each level, and a metal spiral spire on top. As late as 1934 visitors could still ascend to the top of this tower, but now it is closed and cannot be entered or ascended. The base is encircled by a brick wall with a perpetually locked gate, which keeps admirers at arm's length. Depending on who you believe, it may have been built during the Three Kingdoms, the Bei Song or the late Qing Dynasty. After extensive research into the difangzhi local histories, the author has concluded that the current pagoda may possibly be the same as the Xin Bao Ta first constructed in 1066 by the Song Emperor Ying Zong. Although at that time the temple was named Kong Xiang Si, the Longhua Pagoda's official name has continued to be the Bao Ta to this day. In 1984 the pagoda underwent a massive restoration during which the entire tower was covered with scaffolding, and a giant boom crane dropped a brand new copper spiral ornament onto the tower's roof. Although impressive, Longhua Ta is not the only pagoda in Shanghai, as is sometimes claimed, but is in fact only one of a total of 16 pagodas within the Shanghai Municipality.\n\nThe grand outer Shan Men gateway to the temple complex is one of the most impressive sights it has to offer. The five-gate pai lou has a granite stone frame with five wooden double gates, above which are three inscribed wooden signboards, all of which is covered by an enormous three-tiered wooden roof with multiple layers of upturned eaves, itself supported by layers of intricate wooden brackets. The top of the roof is covered with tiles and decorated with dragon-fish ornaments. Each wooden gate is one-foot thick, which should have made the temple impregnable to attack during times of unrest, but unfortunately did not stop the Red Guards in 1966.\n\nPassing through this outer gateway, you enter the first of six", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]