Shanghai

SHANGHAI, the commercial metropolis of China and one of the world's greatest seaports (31° 15' N., 121° 27' E.). The geographical position of Shanghai in respect both to the natural arteries of trade in China and to its wider space relations with the chief commercial regions of the world is extraordinarily favour able. To a degree' unparalleled in any other great country is the foreign trade of China concentrated by geographical conditions into a single sea-gate. The magnificent natural waterways, which form the drainage basin of the Yangtze kiang, give to the great port at its outlet to the Pacific a vast hinterland, characterised by the unique range of its production and the magnitude of its population, estimated at 180 millions. The hinterland of Shang hai is not indeed limited to the Yangtze basin, vast though that is, for the port gathers up a large share of the coastwise commerce of the ports of Chekiang and Fukien, backed by the high ranges of south-east China which hinder their communications with the interior; while a part of the north China plain is also more closely connected with it than with any other outlet. It may be said that about one-half of China, and economically the more important half, is ultimately served by Shanghai ; and its contribution to the revenue of the Maritime Customs is four times as great as that of any other Chinese port. Its general world position is also ex tremely advantageous. It is the nearest port of China to Japan proper. It lies approximately midway along the rich monsoonal margin of Eastern Asia, from Malaya to Primorsk, while the fringing group of archipelagoes from the Philippines to Japan contribute greatly to the importance of the China seas. From a wider standpoint it is about equidistant, reckoned by shipping routes, from the two most developed industrial regions of the world, western Europe and eastern North America.

The Port of Shanghai.

The native city of Shanghai, on the left or west bank of the Whangpoo branch of the Yangtze, is the nucleus of the vast urban agglomeration which now bears its name. Although a city of some antiquity and an outlet of the rich deltaic region, it had little more than local importance prior to the Treaty Port period. Its commerce was consider ably less than that of Ningpo, on a deep-water harbour on the southern shore of Hangchow Bay, with a position relative to the Yangtze delta comparable to that of Marseilles in rela tion to the Rhone. In the course of the naval operations during the first Anglo-Chinese or "Opium" war the British realized the possibilities of Shanghai and at the Treaty of Nanking (1842) it was included among the five "Treaty" ports opened to foreign trade. In the following year the English settlement was located to the north of the native city and was defined by the Soochow Creek on the north, the Yang-king canal on the south and the Whangpoo river on the east. Later the narrow strip between the Yang-king canal (now filled in) and the native city became the site of the French settlement, while the Ameri can settlement grew up on the northern side of the Soochow creek. The local advantages of the site were a position on the estuary as near to the sea as physical circumstances permitted a deep water port to be formed and the junction with the Whangpoo of the Soochow Creek, which linked it with one of the richest regions of the delta. To set against these advantages are certain draw backs with which modern Shanghai is still contending. The first is the fact that the city is wholly built on the alluvial deposits of mud and silt with which the Yangtze has been gradually filling up the original basin that now constitutes its delta. The International Settlement stands on what was formerly a marshy swamp and, al though by careful drainage it has been converted into a fairly healthy site, the soft character of the ground limits the height and weight of the buildings placed upon it. Thus, with the rapid

growth of population, the city tends both to be congested with small buildings and to expand over a very large area. Hence a difficult problem of regional planning has emerged. The second difficulty concerns the character of the Whangpoo, on which Shanghai depends for its communications with the south channel of the Yangtze and the open ocean. As ships began to increase rapidly in draught the many shoals in the river and the shallowness of the water at its bar threatened to make Shanghai inaccessible to large vessels. The problem has now to some extent been solved by the work of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board which derives its authority directly from the Chinese Government and com prises the following officials : the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs for the Province of Kiangsu, the Shanghai Commissioner of Cus toms and the Shanghai Harbour Master. By means of a series of costly works, extending over a period of more than 20 years, the Whangpoo has been converted from an irregular creek, pro gressively silting up, into a good shipway with a minimum depth of 24 to 26 feet at the lowest tides and a high water depth of 3o to 42 feet available throughout the year. Continuous dredging is necessary to maintain these depths, which are not yet sufficient and the largest liners do not enter the river but discharge passen gers and cargo into tenders and lighters outside Woosung, where the Whangpoo enters the Yangtze, and which has become the recognized outport of Shanghai. At the present time, however, it is not so much the navigation of the Whangpoo as the entrance to the Yangtze itself some 3o miles below Woosung, which pre sents the most serious engineering problem. The increase in the draught of ships has been so great in recent years as to make the navigation of the Yangtze bars difficult, and while this affects the Yangtze ports in general, it particularly concerns Shanghai as a world port. The present position is that whereas many ships having draughts of about 3o feet now arrive off the river and a further increase of draught is inevitable, the depth in the main channel of the Yangtze at the "Fairy Flats" is only about 16 to 17 feet at extraordinary low water, 26 to 28 feet at neap high water and 3o to 32 feet at ordinary spring high water. The deep ening of one of the bars seems indispensable to the future welfare of the port of Shanghai but, owing to the great size of the bars, which are many miles in length, to the rapid changes produced by tidal forces and the absence of solid foundations for training works, the task involved is of immense magnitude. The problem has been engaging the attention of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board for many years and in 1921 it convened a committee of harbour and river experts whose detailed report, made after a thorough investigation, is now being considered. The gist of the recommendations is that by means of the largest dredgers pro curable a channel should be cut through the Fairy Flats, deepen ing it "gradually foot by foot to as great a width as required and as possible and to provide as soon as feasible a channel of 600 feet bottom width for the passage of ships drawing 33 feet at ordinary neap high water." The committee further recommends the ex pansion of the existing Whangpoo Conservancy Board "into a new body, which might be known as the Shanghai Harbour Board, with more extended powers and more directly representing shipping and trade interests." It is pointed out that "the inauguration of a strong harbour policy at the earliest possible moment is a sine qua non for the prosperity of the port, will strengthen the position of Shanghai as the principal transhipment and distributing centre, and will confer immense benefits upon the shipping and commerce of China." Apart from its maritime and river communications Shanghai is an important railway centre.