SHANGHAI.

Franklin Times, Volume XVII, Issue 30, 14 March 1927, Page 2

SHANGHAI.

GREAT CHINESE CITY

LONDON ON Till-: YELLOW SKA

Hours lie Tore one reaches the port of Shanghai 1 lio blue of the Pacific is gradually changing into a turbid, yellowish flood, which reminds us that we arc in the Yellow Sea. The rod loams and grey alluvium of China arc being carried down Die Yangt.se River at the rate of G. 428.555.255 cubic feel a year, enough In build an island 90 feet in depth and a mile square annually. The drainage area of the Yangt.se Valley extends Irom the, 90th to the 122nd meridian of east longitude, or about 050.000 square miles, wit ha population of. roughly. 200.000,000, or half the population of China. The actual length of the Yanglse River is said 1o he about 0000 miles.

A river draining such an area and depositing 770,000 cubic feet of solid substance into ihc sea every second is a creator of extensive land surfaces, which quickly becomes sprinkled with, villages. The eastern part of Ihe province of Kiangsu and the island of Tungming, near Shanghai, capable of supporting over a million people, were called into existence by the river ‘sowing the dust of continents yet to be.” Where the British fleet sailed in 1842 is now an expanse of wooded and cultivated land, well populated with industrious settlers. The mighty volume of the great river 1000 miles from the sea is 244 times that of the Thames at London Bridge. The old lady who remarked that Providence wisely made big rivers flow near the big towns would find her theory amply illustrated in China.

The first glimpse of the, mainland of Asia is somewhat disappointing, states a correspondent of the Melbourne Age. Two long, thin, yellow lines stretching along the horizon grow gradually into low, marshy banks with dull foliage, then Woosung, a railroad terminus some miles below Shanghai, appears. The city is situated on the left bank of the Huang-pu, 12 miles from its junction with the Yantse. The name Shanghai means “ihc mart on the sea” but it is now GO miles inland. In the sixteenth century it was an Athens, with poets and philosophers; now it is a great city, with a million Chinese, and some 89.000 Europeans. The scene on the river illustrates the larger life. Great liners, local steamers, launches, junks, sampans, hooded boats, and all kinds of native skiffs crowd and hustle everywhere. \ Two Shanghais. There are really two Shanghais, the foreign settlement and the. native city. All along Ihc British bund are hanks, hotels and private houses .of line architecture, the Consular, buildings, excellent roads gnd footpaths. As one of the five treaty ports, Shanghai was opened 1.0 British trade in 1842, and in the following year the British settlement was founded to the north of the native town. In 1849 the French,. .settlement ...appeared in the narrow space between the native town and the British boundary. The Americans established themselves north of the Soochow in 18G2. The combined area of the settlements is about 8-1-square miles, with wharfage accommodation extending six miles up the river.

The visitor is probably surprised at I the strength of the Chinese element in the foreign settlement. Apart from clerks and interpreters in rich silks one sees Chinese ladies and children handsomely dressed, and rich Chinese are keen competitors for Briiish houses. In the early ’sixties the Taiping rebels kept the country in a ferment. The populace lied for refuge to Shanghai. The law forbade Chinese to resideo'n the settlement., but they could not be kept out. Huts were built for the refugees; speculators made and lost fortunes by them, and numbers of the Chinese remained. It is a well-known fact that many lawless Chinese found refuge in the settlement. The British arid American sol Moments are governed hv a municipality elected by the ratepayers. The streets are well lit and a mixed force of police preserves order. Chinese are not eligible for o/Vice in the council. Judicial authority is vested in the consuls. Foreigners who have no popular representative were formerly subject to the jurisdiction of a mixed court in which a Chinese judge presides with an English, American, or German sitting beside him in an advisory capacity, but in IP 11 the mixed court business was transferred to the municipal council. The Chinese are not happy about this oxtra-terrilor-iality any more than they are pleased at the Imitation of their taxing powers. The two civilisations are a striking contrast. The habit, and the psychology of fEast and West cannot be easily blended. The German has' his beer, the Englishman his sport, the Frenchman his cafe. The Westerner is probably not too plastic and tempted to be somewhat patronising, while the Chinese arc a proud and self-centred race and resentful fof foreign interference. Yet the mixed police, force of Europeans. Sikhs and Chinese work successfully together in mainlaining law 7 and order in the sol Moment.

A Paris for Gaiety. The settlement amuses itself with extraordinary energy. The. women have Chinese cooks or "hoys” and proportionate leisure from home duties. Thanks to the skill of the native tailors elaborate dresses are procurable at modest charges, wTiile the laundrymen are equally expert. Sports and amusements go on in endless variety. House-boat picnics, excursions, shooting expeditions, pony races, and indoor entertainments of all sorts arc sufficient to satisfy all demands. Shanghai settlement is the Paris of the Far East as far as gaiety .goes. Its giddy,delights attract people from Hong Kong and even from Singapore. One might say that Shanghai is at once metropolitan and cosmopoliiau, and a brilliant example of what can he done by British money, energy, and gift of organisation. A volunteer corps of several hundreds protected the city in the rebellion of lOlfi. and

has members of many nationalities in it, including very loyal Chinese. There is also a volunteer motor-car company. The doctors busy themselves in keeping out the plague, which is conveyed by fleas and rats, and there is a rule that all houses lie made ratproof. By means of leaflets and lectures information is constantly circulated regarding sanitation. Many people live in the settlement for years and never go near the native city. They dread smells, slush, small-pox, and being jostled by coolies of knocked down by loaded wheelbarrows. What one sees is an endless crowd of “toiling, trotting, liargaining, dragging, burden - hearing, shouting and yelling men. Airs. Bishop, the much travelled-, had difficulty in getting an Englishman to accompany her on a visit to the native quarter; but she found the people minded (heir own business., and did not incommode her. even when she was taking photos. The streets are about eight feet wide, paved with stones, slabs; and made difficult to pedestrians by innumerable stands for the sale of food. Some of it is raw, some cooked, some being cooked, and over the entire menu is the dominant and penetrating odour of garlic. Some of the gayest shops are those which display funeral trappings, for .which crimson satin seems most popular. Portrait painters do a roaring trade. A bereaved family wishes a portrait’ of the deceased. They have no photograph, but the absence of it presents no difficulty. The artist has a \iook of newspaper portraits. and the relatives choose one which most, nearly resembles the tieceased. The painter does the rest, and everybody is happy. The drug shops have a large stock of beetles, silkworms, and lady bugs from which to grind your medicine. The dentist’s shop is a wheelbarrow on which lies a pair of forceps, flanked by piles of decayed teeth as samples of professional skill. Sometimes a horsedrawn cart is wedged in a narrow street. The horse is taken out, and the cart pushed back to a wider place and then turned round. Shanghai has had its war scares. In 1853-55 the Taiping rebels held the native city, but the foreign settlements were protected by the presence of a British squadron. During the China-Japan trouble Shanghai was exempted from military operations. A Chinese proverb describes the Yantse as hastening to its imperial audience with the ocean. The city of Shanghai is now holding another kind of imperial audience.