SHANGHAI, NOTORIOUS CITY OF THE FAR EAST

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18496, 23 June 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

SHANGHAI, NOTORIOUS CITY OF THE FAR EAST

SHANGHAI has the notorious reputation of being like no other place on earth. That. Shanghai has other sidelines nesides being the commercial capital of China, I was soon to learn. It is the one place Known to me that really lives up to youthful imagery, once the snip has been left behind, says a writer in an English newspaper. Russian, African, Japanese, European, all are here, and I am sure that, disappearing down an alleyway, I espied an Eskimo. That afternoon wc were bidden to a reception, held at the Majestic Hotel, “Le Rendezvous du Monde Elegant,” in Bubbling Well

Road, which -name alone has fascination. Chinese exquisites, foreign and British diplomatic representatives, Navy and Army officers, and the costumes worn by the gentler sex of China, Japan, India and Britain, made, such a scene of splendour that it was sufficient almost to just gaze and gaze.

» Backed bv the masterpiece which is j the Empire Banqueting Room, with its j panels of figured mahogany veneer, gilt and marble in abundance, I counted myself lucky in forming one of that notable company. There was now the famous longest bar in the world to be seen at the Shanghai Club, and thitherward* we hied. Here reputed exiled Russian princesses dance with all and sundry for 12s 6d a dance; at least, this is the nominal fee. Rilley’s Bamboo Hut, the weirdly named Bucket of Blood, and Mum’s Tavern are clubs we reserved for a later visit, but the grill at the French Club, a swim in the pool there, and dancing afterwards arc part of the tyro’s itinerary. With hazy ideas of Sax Rohmer’s Chinese underworlds and opium den life flitting through my mind, I started a pilgrimage of Shanghai’s bona fide native city. ■* Within four wall?, which are being rapidly demolished, half a million or more Chinese inhabitants. Imaginations boggles how life is sustained, congested as it is alike in commerce and domesticity. Even the main thoroughfares are so narrow that it is well-nigh impossible to pass one another when walking, but to be in a rickshaw is hair-raising. Every minute 1 expected to be dumped into the doorway of one of the infinitesimal toy-like shops. Innumerable are the occupations which the Chinese pursue in this romantic city—carvers in jade, ivory, bone, porcelain, metal, bamboo and

camphor woods, silk weavers and brass makers, to mention but a few. Tiny children, babes all but, toil side by side with aged and grown-ups, each and all with amazing hereditary skill and patience.

JJAYMOND POINCARE; “A very good memory is more a matter of continuous hard work than of mental gifts or aptitude. The more* constantly one uses his memory, the better it is.”