CITY OF SHANGHAI.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20075, 16 April 1927, Page 10

CITY OF SHANGHAI.

“ LONDON ON THE YELLOW SEA.” THE FOREIGN SETTLEMENT. Hours before one reaches the port of Shanghai the blue of the Paoifio is gradually changing into a turbid yellowish flood, which reminds us that we are in the bellow Sea. The red loams and grey alluvium of China are being carried down by tile Yangtse River at the rate of 6,428,858,255 cubic feet a year, enough to build an island 90ft in depth and a nile square annually. The drainage area of the Yangtse Valley extends from the 90th to the 122nd meridian of east longitude, or about 650,000 square miles or half the population of, roughly. 200,000,000, or half the population of China. The actual length of the Yangtse River is said to be about 3000 miles.

A river draining such an area and depositing 770,000 cubic feet of solid substance into the sea every second is a creator of extensive land surface, which quickly becomes sprinkled with villages. The eastern part of the province of Eiangsa and the island of Ttun*ming, near Shanghai, capable of supporting over a million people, were called into existence by til* river “sowing the dust of continents y«t to be.” Where the British fleet sailed is 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 the big rivers How near the big towns would And her theory amply illustrated in China. The first glimpse of the mainland of Asia is somewhat disappointing.' 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. Tlie city is situated on the left' bank of the Huang-pu, 12 miles from its junction with the Yangtse. The name Shanghai means “the mart on the sea,” but it is now 60 miles inland. In the sixteenth century it was an Athens, with poets and philosophers, now it is a great city, with a million of Chinese and some 30,000 Europeans. The scene on the river illustrates the larger life. . Great liners, local steamers, launches, junks, sampans, hooded boats, and all kinds of native shiffs crowd and bustle everywhere. There are really two Shanghais. too foreign settlement and 1 the native city All along the British bund'are banks, hotels, and private houses of fine architecture, the consular buildings, excellent roads and footpaths. As one of the free treaty ports, Shaighai was opened |to 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 spect between the native town and tlie British boundary. The Americans established themselves north of the Souchow in 1862. The combined area of the settlements is about 8J aqnaro miles, with wharfage accommodation extending six miles up the river. The visitor is probably surprised at 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 wealthy Chinese are keen competitors for British houses. In the early sixties the Taiping rebels kept the country in a ferment. The populace fled for refuge to Shanghai. The law forbade Chinese to reside in the settlement, but they could not be kept out. Huts were built for the refugees; speculators mads and lost fortunes by them, and numbers of the Chinese remained. It is a wellknown fact that many lawless Chinese found refuge in the settlement.

.Th British and American settlement* are governed by a municipality elected by the ratepayers. The streets are well lit, and a mixed force of police preserve* order. Chinese are not eligibly for office in the council. Judicial authority ia vested in the consuls. Foreigners who have no consular representative were formerly subject to the jurisdiction of a mixed court in which a Chinese judge presides with an English, American, or Gei> man sitting beside him in an advisory capacity, but in 1911 the mixed court business was transferred to the municipal council. The Chinese are not happy about this extra-territoriality any more than they are pleased at “ the limitation of their taxing powers., The two civilisations are a striking contrast. The habits and the psychology of East and West cannot be easily blended. The German has his beer, the Englishman his sport, the Frenchmen hia cafe. The Westerner is probably not too plastic, and tempted to be somewhat patronising, while the Chinese are a proud and self-centred race, and resentful of foreign interferences. Yet the mixed police force of Europeans, Sikhs, and Chinese work successfully together in maintaining law and order in the settlement. fbe settlement amuse# itself with extraordinary energy. The women hare Chinese cooks or “boys,” and proportionate leisure from home duties Thanks to the skill of the native tailors elaborate dresses are procurable at modest charges, while the laundrymen are equally expert. Sports and amusements go on in endless variety. Houseboats pioniog, excursions, shooting expeditions, pony races and indoor entertainments of all sorts are sufficient to satisfy all demands. Shanghai- settlement u the Paris of the Far East so far as gaiety goes. Its giddy delights attract people from Hong Kong, and oven from Singapore. One might even say that Shanghai is at once metropolitan and cosmopolitan, and a brilliant example of. what can be done by British money, energy, and gift of organisation. A volunteer corps of several hundreds protected the city in the rebellion of 1915, 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 be made rat-proof. By means of leaflets and lectures information ia constantly circulated regarding sanitation. Many people live in the settlement for years and never go near the native city. They dread smells, slush, smallpox, and being jostled by coolies or knocked down by loaded wheelbarrows. What one sees is an endless crowd of “toiling, trotting, bargaining, dragging, burden-bearing, shouting and yelling men.” Mrs 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 their own business, and did not incommode her, even when she was taking photos. The streets are about Bft wide, paved with stone slabs, and made difficult to pedestrians by innumerable stands for the sale of food. Some of it i» 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 ha* a book of newspaper portraits, and . the relatives choose one which most nearly resembles the deceased. 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 horse-drawn 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 Tangtso ns hastening to its imperial audience with the ocean. The city of Shanghai is now holding another kind of imperial audience.