SHANGHAI AND NANKING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1932, Page 7

SHANGHAI AND NANKING

Shanghai, the commercial metropolis of China aud'one of the world's greatest seaports, gains importance because of the fact that to a degree unparalleled in any other great country the foreign trade of China is concentrated into a single sea-gate. The vast hinterland has a population estimated at 180,000,000, about half China, and that the most important economically, is served by Shanghai and the city's contribution to the maritime Customs revenue is mora than four times as great as that of any other port. 'It is also the nearest port to Japan proper. The native city of Shanghai is the- nucleus of a vast urban agglomeration which now bears its name. It stands on the left or west bank of the Whangpoo branch of the Yangtse. By means of a series of costly works extending over twenty years, the Whangpoo has been converted from an irregular creek to a stream with a minimum depth of from 24 to 26ft in the lowest tides and a high:water depth of from 30 to 42 feet. Continuous dredging is necessary to maintain these depths. The Shanghai urban agglomeration consists of. six main areas, the Old City, dating from the eleventh century A.D., the International Settlement, tho French- Concession, the northern outer suburb Chapei, an eastern suburb Pootung, and a southern suburb Nantou. The International Settlement lies between the French Concession and the scene of the trouble, and is four times more important, economically than the French Government's interest in the city. The International Settlement is 5584 acres in extent aad contains 30,000 foreigners and 802,000 Chinese. The French Concession is 2525 acres in extent1 and holds 7000 foreigners and 289,000 Chinese. The settlements, and particularly the original British Concession (the International Settlement is composed of the British" and American Concessions, tho boundaries of which were extended in- 1893) form the central districts comprising the principal commercial quarter and the famous riverfront or Bund. The hinterlands are mainly residential in character. The industrialisation of Shanghai has resulted in the creation of a city proletariat of a type new. to China, and estimated to total 300,000. The city is much the greatest manufacturing centre in the country, and lies in a region with traditional skill ia handicrafts. The cotton industry is one of the most important in the city and 30 Japanese mills employ 58,000 operatives, 24 Chinese mills employ 49,000 operatives, and four British mills are staffed by 16,500 operatives. Nanking is about 170 miles to the north-west of Shanghai. Nanking, chief city of the province of Kiangsu, has a population of about 390,000. It dates only from 560 years ago, but is. built upon the site of a city which, under various names, has figured in Chinese history for over two thousand years. Three hundred years ago it was created'the southern, capital (Nan-king), but was the seat of the Imperial Court only during the' reigns of the first two Emperors of the Ming dynasty, and was abandoned for Pekin by the third sovereign of the line who usurped the crown. Formerly one of the chief literary centres of the empire, Nanking was taken by the British in 1842, and made a treaty port by the French Treaty of 1858. la 1899 it was voluntarily thrown open to foreign trade by the' Chinese Government, and in 1909 was connected by railway to Shanghai. Satin, crepe, nankeen cloth, paper, pottery, ana artificial flowers were among its chief manufactures. The Nationalist Government decided to remove the capital from Pekin as a mark of dissociation from the old regime, and Nanking was chosen as the republican capital* In 1928 and 1929 it was the scene of Nationalist disorders, but the city offers too many advantages as the headquarters of the republican, authorities lightly to be given up. ■