SHANGHAI

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 9 March 1927, Page 3

SHANGHAI

LONDON ON" THE YELLOW • - SEA.\ Hours before one reachcs the port oi Shanghaai the blue of the Pacific is gradually changing into a turbid, yellowisli fluid, wliicli reminds us that we are in thc Ycllow Sea (states an fAge' writer). The red loams and grey alluA'ium of China are being earried down hv tlie Yangtse River at the rate of 0,428,858,255 cubic feet a year, enough to build an island 90ft in depth and a mile square annaully The drainage area of the Yangtse Valley extends from the 90th to the 22nd meridian of east longitude, or about 650,000 square miles.with a population of, roughly, 200,000,000, or half the population of China. The actual length of the Yangtse River js said to be about 3,000 miles. v~. A river draining such an area and depositing 770,000 cubic feet of solid substance into the sea pvcry second is a creator of extensiye land surface, which quickly hecomes sprinkled with villages. Thc? (eastern" part of the province of Kaf&gsu and the island of Tsungraing, near Shanghai, capable of supportin^ . over a million people were called'Tnto existence by the river "sowing the dust of continents yct to be."*' "Where the British fleet sailed in\1842 ^is now an expanse of wooded and .cultivated land, well populated -with1 industrious settlers.. The mighty vol- | nme ofi the great river 1000 nriles from the sea*- is 244 times that ,pf the Thames at London Bridge. ThiT nld lady who remarked that Providence wisely made the big rivers flow near the big towns would find her theory amplyillustrated in China. The first glimpse of the inainland i of Asia is somewbat disappointing. Two long, thin, yellow lines stretching along the horizion grow gradually into' low, marshy hanks with dull foUage, the 11 Woosung, a railroad ^rmiqus" ^beyond Shanghai appears. The city is situated on the left ! bank of the Huang-pu, twelves miles I from its junction with the Yangtse. j The name Shanghai means "the 1 mart on the sea," :but \is is now j sixty miles inland. InT the ' sixteenth century it was an' Athens, with poets and philosophers. now it is a great city, with a million pf Clrinese and some 30,000 Europeans"".v The scene on the river illustrates the larger life. Great liners, local steaniers, launches, junks, sampans, hooded boats and all kinds of nativc skiffs crowd and bustle everywhere. There are really two Shanghais, the foreign settlement and the native city. All along the British Bund are banlcs, hotels, and private houses of fine architecture, the Consular : btiildings, excellent roads and footpaths. As one of the five treaty ports, Shanghai was opened to British trade in 1842, . and in. the following year the Britis"h 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 1862. The combined area of the settlements is 1 about eight and a-half square miles, with wharfage accommodation extending six miles up the river. The visitor is probably surprised at the strength of the Chinese element in the for.eign settlement. Apart from clerks "and interpreters in rich silks one sees Chinese ladies and children handsomely dressed, a;id wealthy Chinese are keen competitors for- British houses. In the early sixties Ihe " 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 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 and American settlements are governed by a municipality elected by the ratep.ayers. The streets are well lit and a mixed force of police preserves order. Chinese are not eligible for office'in the council. Judicial authority is vested in the Consuls. Foreigners who have no. consular representative were formerh'- subject to the jurisdiction of a mixed court, in which a Chinese judge presides with an English, American or Ger^ man sitting beside him in an advisory capacitv, but in 1911 the mixed court business was tran«fefred to j 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 hab'its and the Dsychology of East and West cannot be easily blended. ' Tbe German htis hls beer. the Englishman his sport, the Frenchman his cafe. The Westerner is probably , not ioo plastlc and tempted to be ' soinewhat patronising, while the Chinese are a proud and selfcentred race, and resentful of 'for- j eign interference. Yet the mixed police force of Europeans, Sikhs and Chinese work successfully to- ' gether in maintaining law and or- j der in the settlement. j The settlement amuses itself with ' extraordinary energy. The women have Chinese cooks and proportionate leisure from hdme. duties. 1 Thanks to the skill of the native tailors clabomte dresses are procurable at modest charges, while the laundrymen are equally expert. Sports and amusements go on in cndless varie'ty. flouseboat picnics, excursions, shooting expeditions, pc-ny races and indoor entertainments of all sorts are suflicient to 1 saiisfy all demands. Shanghai j settlement is the Paris of the Far ! East so far as gaiety goes. Its giddy delights attract people from Hong Kong, and even from Singapore. One might even say that Shanghai is at once metropolitan and cosmopoliian, and a brilliant cxampI6 of what can be done by British money, j energy crnt gift of organisation. A , Miluntoer eorps of several liundred 1 ' prc4ec-rd Ihe city in ilic rehellion of i3T'' and hns members of many ' nar.e:; P'ies in it, including very doyi !'" irese. Tliere is also a volnnif 'folor car company. The dr.r ' bur.y tliemsel-ve's in lceepine" out ' i'v ])lague, ■""hich is conveyed b" f. ■ s and rats, and there is n .-lde " at all ho'^"" be made rr.T"i;oru, i-" s ' " "'""•f'ets and lectures i'i fo*' • " + ! on e^nstantly circulated regarding sanilatiou.

) 1 Many people live in the settlement for ycars and never go near the l-alive city. They dread smells, vslush, smallpox and heing jostled l.i y coolies or knocked down by loaded wheclbarro\vs. AYhat one sees is an endless crowd of "toiling, trolting, bargaining, dragging, j burden-bearing, shouting and yell-. ! ing men." Mrs Bishop, the muchj travelled, had tlifiiculty in getting an Englishman to accompany her 011 a visit to the native quarter, but 1 shc found the people minded their ! own business and did not incom- : mode her, even when she was lak- ! ing photos. 1 Thc streets are about 8ft wide, , paved with stone slabs, and made j difiicult to pedestrians hy innumer1 able stands for the sale of food. I Some of it is raw, some cooked. . some being cooked, and over the j entire riienu is the dominant and penetrating odor 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 hereaved family wishes a portrait of the deceased. They have no photograph, but the absence of it nresents no difficulty. The artist has a hook 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 jrour medicine. The , dentist's shot> 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 wedg- ; ed in a narrow street. The Iiorse is | taken out, and the cart pushed back 1 to a wider place and then turned ] round. . 1 Shanghai has had its war scares. 1 In 185;-:- 55 the Taiping rebels held the native city, but the foreign settlements were nrotected by the nresence of a British sqnauron. Durinsi the China-Japan trouble Shanghai was exemoted from mili•tary operations. A Chinese proverb describes the Yangtse as hastening to its imperial audience with the •ocean. The city of Shanghai is now j holding another kind of imperial ; i audience. i t- ; [ j 1111 1