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The Imperial Maritime Customs, the Shanghai Municipal Council and the Mixed Court

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ISBN 978-0-470-01637-4 (HB) ISBN 978-1-118-86754-9 (epub) ISBN 978-1-118-86755-6 (epdf)

Notes about Spelling and Grid References

The spelling of Chinese names historically causes an insolvable transliteration problem. We have chosen to use the spelling by which particular words are most commonly understood or referred to, and have therefore not adhered exclusively to the contemporary system of pinyin. Road names are a particular source of confusion. The contemporary map on page 10 contains most versions of street names since 1843.

Both contemporary maps on pages 8-9 and page 10 and the aerial photograph on page 190 contain a grid reference system to assist the reader to locate sites on the map more easily. The grid reference is referred to in the text at the first mention of each key site or building and appears as a bracketed double-digit code, e.g.: (A1).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Too many people have contributed to this book for us to be able to thank them all individually. We will forever be indebted to all those Shanghainese who, against a prevailing trend, shared their time, stories and spaces with us. Our sincere gratitude goes also to so many other individuals and organisations that have supported, guided and corrected us along the way. Any errors remaining in the text are of our own making. Space does not allow us to mention everyone individually, but the following people will be aware of their contributions, though maybe unaware of the extent of our sincere appreciation and gratitude: Nick and Jocelyn Atkinson, Joanna Burke, Patrick Conner and the Martyn Gregory Gallery, Malcolm Cooper, Stella Dong, Robert Elwall and the staff at the RIBA, Arlene Fleming, Michelle Garnaut, Bruno vanderBerg, Marcus Ford, and all the staff at M-on-the-Bund, Edwin Green, Lenore Heitkamp, Alan Hollinghurst, Jim Hollington, Tess Johnston, Professor Luo Xiao Wei, Pan Lynn, Fred Manson, Qian Zong Hao, Professor Ruan Yi San, Richard Rogers, Robert Torday, Selahadin Abdullah, Semira Ibrahim and Heden and Wu Jiang. We are grateful also to the British Council and their China Studies programme for providing invaluable financial and institutional support in the early stages of research; and to the Graham Foundation for their generous support of research and use of materials, many of which would not be featured in this book had it not been for their generous consideration. The following are among the many other institutions that have helped to make this book as comprehensive and informative as possible: the British Library, the HSBC Archives, the Library of Congress, the National Archive of Great Britain, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Shanghai Library, the Shanghai Municipal Archives, and the University of Victoria (Canada). We also wish to extend a very special thank you to all those at and associated with Wiley Academy and John Wiley & Sons who have worked so hard to complete this book with such dedicated professionalism: Helen Castle, Jenny McCall, Mariangela Palazzi-William, Famida Rasheed, Liz Sephton, Louise Porter and Lucy Isenberg. Our greatest debt of gratitude is to Hou Ji Xing, friends and family in Shanghai, Eleanor and John, whose patience, understanding, contributions and support have been beyond measure. Last and not least, to Phil Ochs for being a constant source of light in dark times - ‘I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone’.

View of the Bund from the mid-1860s

View of the Bund today

Introduction

The Story of China's Gateway

In this city the gulf between society's two halves is too grossly wide for any bridge … And we ourselves though we wear out our shoes walking the slums, though we take notes, though we are genuinely shocked and indignant, belong, unescapably, to the other world. We return, always, to Number One House for lunch.

In our world, there are garden-parties and the night-clubs, the hot baths and the cocktails, the singsong girls and the Ambassador's cook. In our world, European business men write to the local newspapers, complaining that the Chinese are cruel to pigs, and saying that the refugees should be turned out of the Settlement because they are beginning to smell.

And the well-meaning tourist, the liberal and humanitarian intellectual, can only wring his hands over all this and exclaim: ‘Oh dear, things are so awful here—so complicated. One doesn't know where to start.’

Flying kites on Shanghai's historic Bund

Introduction

Shanghai is an inimitable city. In the past, no other city was more heterogeneous, more autonomous, or more iniquitous. Today, no other city is undergoing such massive change. For the future, no other city has such ostentatious designs. Infamous for its depravity and famed for its autonomy, Shanghai's celebrated prosperity between the two world wars spawned a renowned impiety that would have appalled even the depraved inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sex, drugs and organised crime underpinned the city's social life as much as greed, power and decadence defined its architecture and urban growth. However, this illustrious chapter represents only a snippet of the story. For centuries, Shanghai has navigated highs and lows, and lured millions who came to make their fortune or steal others’. While rapaciously consuming everything that has come its way, by attracting powerful people and appalling conflict, which resulted in unparalleled misery, debauched hedonism and immeasurable wealth, Shanghai has become greater than the sum of its parts — a peculiar urban form, a mega-metropolis, an irrepressible and abstract entity. As one journalist put it: ‘Shanghai has had many conquerors, but Shanghai conquers the conquerors.’¹ Foreign and Chinese architectural firms are once again flocking to Shanghai to take part in the largest urban transformation in history, driven by China's burgeoning economy. A new battle for Shanghai is taking place, as the city's unprecedented development looks either to undermine or to enhance Shanghai's distinguished heritage.

Standing at the gateway to the Yangtze River, the backbone of China and the world's entry point to the vast trading potential of the country's interior, Shanghai has evoked many things to many people, garnering an extensive list of epithets which depict an almost absurdly schizophrenic character: ‘Whore of the Orient’, ‘Paris of the East’, ‘Queen of Eastern Settlements’, ‘Paradise of Adventurers’, ‘New York of the Far East’, ‘City of Palaces’, ‘Yellow Babylon of the Far East’, and the former Duke of Somerset's ‘Sink of Iniquity’. However, behind the vacuous sobriquets, the city's eminence and consequent international importance derive solely from its outstanding geographical location for trade. This is as important today as it always was and always will be: trade provides the stimulus driving this dynamic mercantile city; it is trade that has engendered the lust for wealth which is synonymous with Shanghai and with the character of its residents—industrious people renowned for their capacity to flourish in the shadow of the skyscraper.

International trade has permeated every layer of Shanghai's rich history and left its mark on the city's urban form and diverse architectural composition. Its vibrant mix of colonial structures, Modernist piles, Art Deco motifs, eclectic styles and postmodern towers makes the city a treasure trove for both the idle wanderer and the discerning professional. Inscribed in the streets and buildings are the legacies of every major event that has taken place within the city's boundaries. The first Opium War (1840–3) and Britain's subsequent government-sponsored drug smuggling that led to Shanghai's foundation (1843) and the West's rape of China shaped the opulent facades along Shanghai's famous Bund and downtown. China's bitter domestic conflicts (from the 1850s) and myriad refugees forged the street plan of the former British Settlement. The narrow-mindedness and greed of early settlers and of subsequent administrations were responsible for Shanghai's tortuous road network and its infamously paltry pavements. The rise of Chinese republicanism in the early 20th century can be read in the absence of the ancient city wall, whose silhouette appears as an annular scar in an otherwise linear street pattern. The Russian revolutions are manifested in apartment buildings and in the domes of former Orthodox churches. Japanese aggression and the origins of the Second World War emerge through the underprivileged suburbs that witnessed the world's first urban aerial bombing campaign. Nazi persecution is unveiled in former ghettos that became the world's last safe refuge for European Jews. The tragedy of the Cultural Revolution and China's global isolation appear in faded Maoist slogans, tired facades and ill-considered urban programmes.

1930s sketch by ‘Norma’ of Shanghainese living in the midst of urban growth.

It is remarkable enough that so many disparate international events swept over Shanghai, but that these historical events are recorded in the surviving buildings and streets after decades of isolation is almost miraculous. However, the longevity of Shanghai's hibernation is matched only by the velocity of its recent resurgence. The most comprehensive and revolutionary urban metamorphosis in history has transformed the city's skyline with its 4,000 high-rise buildings sprouting from Shanghai's alluvial terrain since the mid-1980s. The scale of the city's regeneration is characterised by the duel between the past and the future that so blatantly evades the present, a duel in which developers and preservationists have become the new protagonists in a conflict over Shanghai's future—not for political or economic gain, but for the continuity of its famously rich urban texture.

Shanghai offers a unique case study in which many contemporary urban problems are conspicuous by their exaggeration and through which much can be learned. This book sets out to contextualise contemporary Shanghai by illustrating its history through its architecture and urban landscape. By exploring the city's remarkable past, from its ancient origins, through foreign dominance, to China's resurgence, one gains a startlingly clear picture of Shanghai's unique physical character. A close examination of Shanghai's architecture and urbanism reveals, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, all the facets of human nature, from its altruistic best to its debauched worst, helps make sense of the overwhelming changes taking place in modern China and sheds light on an enigmatic future.

The Jin Mao tower seen through Shanghai's rapidly changing urban landscape

While most cities develop almost imperceptibly as their fortunes ebb and flow with time, where fresh ideas inject vitality, where the recent past is condemned and where the old is deified or destroyed, Shanghai flouts these perceived norms and defies established principles of urban development and preservation. The eyes of the world are on Shanghai's illustrious plans for the 21st century and beyond, yet few have stopped to ponder the origin of this phenomenal transformation or questioned its price. Behind Shanghai's headline-grabbing superlatives, history is not in the making, but being repeated.

Notes and References

¹ Percy Finch, Shanghai and Beyond, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York), 1953, p 14.

Chapter One

The Origins of Shanghai

The Yuyuan gardens and teahouse

[The native city] is traversed by lanes or streets which might better be termed fetid tunnels, seething with filth and teeming with miserable and vicious looking humanity. Odours are suffocating and the eyes can find nothing attractive or beautiful to rest upon: squalor, indigence, misery, slush, stench, depravity, dilapidation, and decay prevail everywhere. One almost fears to enter a place of so many repugnant scenes.

The story of Shanghai and its environs, contrary to many early settler accounts, does not start with a desolate swamp formed by the Yangtze's eternal effluent, or with a nondescript fishing village struggling to survive on China's coast. It begins with a settlement formed many hundreds of years ago that evolved into an illustrious merchant community and a unique Chinese city. Early foreign descriptions rarely allude to this; instead, they disparage the nature of the land and people they encountered, so exalting their own contribution. The ‘waste land without houses’,¹ from which foreigners built the settlements that became the ‘stronghold of civilisation in the Far East’,² was actually a clearly defined area, highly regarded by local Chinese and subject to strict land ownership for centuries. The foreigner did not transform a ‘sedgy swamp’³ into a magnificent city through self-ordained civilising brilliance, but invaded the gateway to China and exploited a well-established mercantile community by exposing it to international trade. The consequent growth of a settlement from this fusion of two disparate trading groups in such a prime location was inevitable.

Location and meaning

Shanghai stands 15 miles south of the mouth of the Yangtze River—the backbone of China that divides the country almost equally and has an estimated 400 million people living in its catchment. The former walled city sat close to the intersection of two important waterways, the Huangpu River and the Woosung River, which provide access to the sea and the hinterland respectively. Few cities on earth are so advantageously located for the pursuit of domestic and international trade.

The topography of the surrounding area is central to Shanghai's eminence. The traditionally affluent neighbouring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang include the wealthy Yangtze Triangle, an area containing the prosperous silk and tea region of the Hang-Jia-Hu Plain.⁴ This area alone has made China famous throughout the world for those two primary exports, and at the start of the 21st century, with 6 per cent of China's population, accounts for 18 per cent of the country's production. Despite appalling if sporadic incidence of flooding and famine that have caused untold misery, over the centuries the normally auspicious conditions have created a region that, characterised by abundant agricultural activity, has been described as the Garden of China.

Many diverse accounts attest to the etymology of Shanghai. In Chinese, ‘Shanghai’ is made up of two characters, Shang and Hai, the former meaning ‘up’, ‘upper’, or ‘above’, and the latter meaning ‘sea’. The name Shanghai therefore has various possible interpretations. Two straightforward suggestions are derived from the city being ‘up from the sea’ or ‘above the sea’. Another possibility arises from the location relative to an area called Xia Hai Pu, Xia being the opposite to Shang and Pu meaning ‘by the water’, often referring to a river bank. Historical records suggest that two of the Woosung River's tributaries were called Shang Hai Pu, or ‘Upper Sea’, and Xia Hai Pu, or ‘Lower Sea’. Shang Hai Pu once flowed into the area of Pudong, across the Huangpu from Shanghai, while on the opposite bank Xia Hai Pu flowed into what later became Shanghai's northern suburb of Hongkou. It is believed that the ruins of the temple of Xia Hai existed up until the mid-20th century.

Administrative map of the Shanghai region in the 1700s

Shanghai is also referred to as Hu and Shen. Hu originates from a 4th-century settlement called Hu Tu Lei, located approximately one mile north of the old city of Shanghai. The Hu derives from a method of tidal fishing with nets strung on bamboo poles that was very common on the waterways around the region. Tu refers to a single stream leading to the sea, while Lei refers to a mound, in this case a fortification. The name Shen derives from the title, Chuen Shen, given to Huang Xie, who was awarded this land during the reign of the Kingdom of Chu in the 4th century BC.

The Shanghai region

The earliest records of the region around Shanghai date from the era of Chinese history called ‘Spring and Autumn’(Chun Qiu) between 770 BC and 476 BC which was named after one of the five Confucian Classics written in this period. Together with the ‘Warring States’ period, this disunited and turbulent time was considered the golden age of Chinese philosophy, which also saw the establishment of the doctrines of Taoism. The Shanghai region was then a dominion of the Wu Kingdom, whose people frequently fought with their neigh-bours, the Yue Kingdom. To afford protection to his kingdom, the king of Wu built a city in his own name, He Lu, between 514 BC and 494 BC on the banks of the Woosong River a few miles from present-day Shanghai.

The boundaries of the Yue and the Wu Kingdoms varied constantly during the Warring States, or Zhan Guo, period of Chinese history (between 475 BC and 221 BC), which ended when China was united under the famous Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who built much of the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army. In the turmoil characterising this period, the administration of the Shanghai region shifted from Wu to Yue, then in 355 BC to the Chu Kingdom, under whose rule the region became known as Lou from 207 BC.

Later, in the epoch known as ‘Three Kingdoms’ (AD 220–80), the first phase of an era of bitter disunity in China that lasted until the 7th century AD and is often compared to Europe's Dark Ages, the primary settlement in the Shanghai region was a town called Qin Long, or ‘Blue Dragon’. This city acquired its name when Sun Quan, the emperor of one of the Three Kingdoms, built a warship on the banks of the Woosung and called the ship Qin Long. Qin Long, 25 miles up the Woosung from present-day Shanghai, was used by the emper-or as a military port and the site of the customs office, serving as the region's gateway for goods into and out of the interior.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317–420), a settlement called Hu Tu Lei was established a few miles east of Qin Long on the bank of the Woosong River, close to the former settlement of He Lu. Hu Tu Lei comprised two separate fortifications near the site of the British Consulate in the British Settlement which was formed over one and a half thousand years later. These sites, being so close to the future foreign settlements in Shanghai, assume an important role in the ancient history of Shanghai. In the 1850s it was suggested that the new foreign settlement in Shanghai should be called Lu Zi Cheng (‘City of Reeds’), after an ancient settlement constructed close to the forts of Hu Tu Lei, but the name was not adopted.

The regional administration around Shanghai altered considerably from the 6th century. In AD 507, the region of Lou was renamed Xin Yi, which itself was subdivided in AD 535. Present-day Shanghai was located in the southern portion of this subdivision, named Kun Shan, part of which was absorbed in AD 751 into a new administration called Hua Ting. Shanghai evolved in the region of Hua Ting, and became administratively independent by the end of the Song Dynasty (AD 960–1279) between AD 1265 and 1267.

The first recorded mention of the name ‘Shanghai’ remains ambiguous. There is a trend for later records to quote earlier dates, while older records quote later ones. Records from the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644) suggest that Shanghai was formed in the late Song Dynasty (AD 1127–1279), but records from the later Qing Dynasty (AD 1644–1911) claim Shanghai was established in the early Song Dynasty (AD 960–1127).⁵ Foreign interpretations veer towards the date AD 1074, perhaps because the first mention of this in an English language publication appears in AD 1850,⁶ which itself is likely to have derived from a Chinese record of AD 1814.

Regional map of Shanghai before foreign settlement

Despite the numerous discrepancies, most authorities concur that Shanghai was founded in the Song Dynasty, but more important is its independence from the region of Hua Ting. Shanghai's illustrious recent history began in AD 1291,⁷ when it became a ‘Xian’ or district administration, making it an important centre administratively, culturally and commercially. Its eminence as a port was boosted by the relocation of the local customs office to Shanghai from Qin Long, which had silted up and become unnavigable for large ships.

The city of Shanghai

After becoming a Xian, Shanghai's institutions were augmented significantly in keeping with its new status. Four years after its administrative promotion, Shanghai established official centres of learning, known as Xian Xue, after which many other schools were built in Shanghai. These state schools taught Confucianism based on a method of ‘question and debate’, a system that relied on rhetorical teaching as opposed to deductive reasoning and instruction.

The walled city showing the waterways, water gates and streets

Shanghai is said once to have been a ‘secluded place’, whose inhabitants were ‘rude and simple’⁸ and travelled no further than the neighbouring provinces, but by the time it had become a Xian it was ‘a large town, celebrated for its press of business, and not for its sea port alone’.⁹ Towards the end of the 15th century, Shanghai is said to have become culturally rich, with poets, musicians and eminent scholars and politicians making it a place of renown.

The walled city of Shanghai in the early 19th century, showing the importance of surrounding waterways, including the Huangpu (left) and the Woosong River (bottom). Notable landmarks include Sinza Bridge and the Lunghua Pagoda

The ascendancy of Shanghai as a significant Chinese trading and cultural centre soon attracted unwelcome attention internationally. Japanese forces and complicit Chinese pirates, who for centuries had plagued the coast of China, attacked the city with increasing frequency. Between April and June 1553,¹⁰ the Japanese launched five assaults on the region, looting, sacking villages and towns and raping and killing the hapless residents. Having discovered the source of rich pickings, these marauding troops returned in 300 ships and routed Shanghai, which ‘was set on fire and burnt to the ground’.¹¹ In response to these series of massacres, the residents of Shanghai contributed generously to the construction of a city wall to prevent further attacks.¹²

The city wall was the largest physical change to affect Shanghai until foreigners arrived in the mid-19th century. The annular wall was 2.5 miles in circumference, 24 feet high and surrounded by a 30 foot ditch. Along it four arrow towers were constructed with 20 smaller bastions and 3,600 embrasures to augment the defence. Six gates provided for ingress and egress: Chaozong (Big East Gate), Baodai (Small East Gate), Kualong (Big South Gate),Chaoyang (Small South Gate), Yifeng (West Gate), and Yanghai (North Gate).When peace was restored, the arrow towers were converted into temples, and in 1607 the wall was raised by five feet.

Later, four water gates were built adjoining four of the six land gates. These four water gates provided access into and out of the city for the city's three largest canals, only one of which, Zhao Jia Bang, traversed the city from the Huangpu on the east side and penetrated the west wall. The four gates were: Baodai water gate across the Fang Bang, Chaozong water gate across East Zhaojia Bang, Yifeng water gate across West Zhaojia Bang, and Chaoyang water gate across Xiujia Bang, which, in 1598, was the last of the water gates to be added. These waterways, connected to the moat and the Huangpu, served as the lifeblood of the city, providing defence, a means of transportation, waste disposal and drinking water.

The eastern edge of the city wall, with the bustling merchant neighbourhood on the banks of the busy Huangpu River

Within the city, there were five major creeks with many smaller tributaries. The footpaths and roads tended to follow the line of these waterways, with over a hundred bridges crossing them throughout the city. The city's tidal waterways caused several problems. If a fire broke out during low tide and the creeks were dry, it could easily develop into a conflagration; conversely, heavy winter rains combined with high tides could flood the city. On one occasion in the Qing Dynasty the city drowned under 5 feet of water and boats were seen ‘travelling in the fields’.¹³ The tide also brought silt and sand, blocking the creeks and increasing salinity in the water table. By the early 20th century, the condition had deteriorated so much that the creeks were filled in or covered over and replaced by roads.

A teahouse and wood merchants in Shanghai's vibrant riverside suburbs

During the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368–1644), there were five main streets in Shanghai, crossing the city from east to west and north to south. Ten street names are recorded, echoing the names of prominent residents of the time. Much later, in the early 19th century, the street layout had become considerably more dense. From 1805, 63 streets are recorded, 27 of which are named after important families, a concrete reflection of the city's feudal structure. The centre of the city was called Xian Shu (the Office of Xian)(H6), and was situated west of the existing City God Temple (Cheng Huang Miao).The significance of the Xian Shu's location at the core of the city was further emphasised by the arrangement and proliferation of public, religious and academic institutions around this core and reflected in the surrounding street names such as ‘Left of Xian Street’ and ‘Behind Xian Street’.

Street names traditionally played an important role in Shanghai, often denoting some landmark area such as a religious site, place of historical interest or important personage. Many street names also denoted waterways, creeks and bridges which they followed or crossed, or indicated the trades and types of activity that predominated in a particular street. Commercial areas were arranged according to specific activities so that similar trades or produce could be found along one street. This organisation significantly influenced Shanghai's character and was evidenced through many of its street names, such as Fish Street and Fruit Street, some of which still exist, though most have become extinct with the advent of modern town planning.

After 1681, when during the Qing Dynasty the threat from pirates and other enemies was considered passed, the ban on using the sea for transportation and commerce was lifted and some of Shanghai's most important streets developed along the river bank outside the city wall, where commercial activities flourished. The area of land between the Huangpu and the southeast portion of the city wall soon became a centre of trade, where the Chinese customs duties office, Jiang Hai Guan, was built and a prestigious suburb grew up containing eleven main streets, five running north to south and six running east to west.

The street nearest the Huangpu had many wharfs and jetties but was often submerged or flooded during heavy rains or high tides. This street was called Wai Ma Lu (Outside Road), the ‘Ma Lu’ portion literally meaning ‘Horse Road’, which was always used to denote a road in Chinese. Foreigners in Shanghai commonly referred to this term as ‘Maloo’. To combat the recurring problem caused by flooding, the construction of larger public and commercial wharfs connected to the mainland above the high-water mark improved the area, which in its prime boasted over 20 wharfs and the only vehicle ferry to Pudong, on the opposite bank of the Huangpu. Parallel to Wai Ma Lu was Li Ma Lu (Inside Road), now connected to the Bund via South Zhongshan Road. The third and fourth streets were notable for selling all manner of foodstuffs and served the important Bean Market Street near the Big East Gate, around which wholesale businesses were concentrated, particularly in staples such as rice, flour, wheat and oil. Further to the south, near the suburb of Dong Jia Du (often referred to by foreigners as Tunkadoo), bamboo and wood for the construction industry were among the primary imports. The fifth street, today Zhong Hua Lu, was built when the city wall was destroyed in 1913–14.

North of this riverside suburb was a smaller suburb containing one of the most important streets in Shanghai from the 18th century—Yang Hang Jie (Foreign Hong Street, now called Yangshuo Road).Yang Hang Jie, over 300 metres long, contained many ‘hongs’ (warehouses) belonging to merchants who bought and sold foreign goods. Spanish silver from Canton and Fujian was the standard currency. This area outside Little East Gate was the most prosperous in Shanghai during the Qing Dynasty, dealing in imported goods such as sandalwood, turtle shell, birds' nests, and export goods such as cloth, pottery, silk, tobacco and dried fruit. It spawned many restaurants and shops and attracted wealthy merchants from all over China, especially from Canton and Fujian provinces.

The ‘forest of masts’ on the Huangpu in the mid-19th century

These merchants established guilds called huiguan or gongsuo based on their region or trade. Huiguan supported resident communities and their families, protecting the rights of members and providing medical and charitable services, religious temples, education and sometimes guesthouses or cemeteries. Those huiguan that served professional interests sought to resolve trade disputes and promoted the vocation of their members. Shanghai was both renowned and unique for its large variety of huiguan, often being described as the original expression of multiculturalism in China, preceding international multiculturalism in Shanghai by over a century.

The huiguan of the Commercial Boat Association

Architecturally huiguan were often very elaborate, reflecting the craftsmanship and religious and vernacular styles of the region they represented. Their spatial arrangement varied depending on the size and influence of the community. The smaller ones comprised an office, a shrine and perhaps a guesthouse, whereas the larger ones might also include stages for theatrical performances, schools, teahouses, hospitals and even a cemetery. Their architectural style changed throughout the 19th century particularly in response to Western influence. Before the Opium Wars they tended to be larger and more elaborate, but after the arrival of foreigners in Shanghai they became smaller and less sophisticated. By the end of the 19th century, Western architectural motifs were used, representing a fusion of Eastern and Western styles and depictions. The Wood Merchants' Huiguan was decorated with woodcarvings depicting foreigners walking their dogs and ladies riding rickshaws. Shanghai once had over 30 huiguan representing different communities and over 100 representing different trades, including pig slaughtering, hat manufacturing, wine making and shipping.

Boat owners were among the most prosperous and numerous merchants in Shanghai at the time, commonly owning 30 to 50 boats each. Only the largest merchant ships serving the China coast dared to navigate the treacherous currents at the mouth of the Huangpu and Yangtze, while most boats plied the local rivers and waterways. In Shanghai's prime there were over 3,500 registered boats, appearing like a ‘forest of masts’¹⁴ to the first foreign visitors. The huiguan belonging to the Commercial Boat Association (Shang Chuan Huiguan), built in 1715, was the earliest and one of the largest in Shanghai—its design so elaborate that foreigners often mistook it for a temple.

Shanghai possessed many temples and shrines honouring various gods, individuals and philosophers such as Lao-Tzi (Taoism) and Kong-Tzi (Confucianism). As a commercial centre, Shanghai tolerated many different religious beliefs, which endowed the city with a diverse spiritual character that embraced Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and various local religions. Religion, philosophy and other forms of worship were central to life in China until the mid-20th century.

Among the most important temples was Cheng Huang Miao, or City God Temple, on the northern bank of the Fang Creek. Built at the start of the 15th century, this temple was devoted to Huo Guang, a man who had succeeded, at least temporarily, in protecting the city from the ravages of the sea. Soon after it was built, it was enlarged and improved, though it was destroyed by fire in 1606 and despoiled by various insurgents over the centuries, including the British who used it as an army base when they invaded Shanghai in 1842. Two uprisings against Chinese imperial rule in the mid-19th century wrought further havoc on the city and on the City God Temple. The first, in 1853, saw it looted and destroyed by a band of rebels called the Small Swords; and a little over ten years later it was again ravaged, this time by the infamous Taipings, whose four-year spree of violence brought unmitigated devastation across China. Fire again destroyed the temple twice in the 20th century, soon after which the compound was converted into a school and factory during the Cultural Revolution. Since 1994, it has resumed its original function.

A temple to Confucius (Wen Miao (G7)) was located inside the East Gate, but the Small Swords occupied it in 1853 and destroyed it during their retreat in 1855. The temple complex was then moved to the West Gate, where it remains, though it became a park in 1931 and a public library has been added.

The City God Temple

Another renowned Shanghai landmark is the Hu Xin Ting (H6), a pavilion that became known among foreigners as the ‘Willow-Patterned Teahouse’ because of its resemblance to the famous willow pattern pottery. The pavilion stands in a small lake next to the Yu Yuan Gardens near the City God Temple and is connected to the bank by a distinctive zigzag walkway, designed to fox evil spirits who are believed to travel only in straight lines. Built in 1784, it was originally a pavilion and meeting place for merchants dealing in the local blue-dyed cotton, but in 1855 it was converted into a teahouse. These were popular venues for conducting business in an informal environment—a customary activity throughout China. Benefiting from its prime location, the teahouse prospered and was extended. Originally square in plan, two small additions were made to make it semi-hexagonal. Later extensions completed the hexagonal floor plan. The various stages of development are evident in the supporting columns and internal structure. The British ‘occupied’ the pavilion compound when they invaded Shanghai, ‘delighted with the curious bridges, gateways, gigantic lamps, grottoes, shady alcoves, and…the rockery’.¹⁵

The Yuyuan gardens and teahouse

Major waterways

Historically, waterways have always played an integral part in the life and development of the region around Shanghai. Early maps of Shanghai illustrate clearly the dependence on waterways for transport and the notable scarcity of significant roads and footpaths, due to the preponderance of creeks, canals and rivers that interlace the region, but these vital arteries have altered considerably over the past two millennia. Tracing the exact location of settlements is therefore challenging, as the position of these ephemeral markers shifts considerably over time. Settlements are relocated and waterways oscillate with countless tides and floods or through human intervention.

Shanghai's link to the sea is the broad Huangpu River, which winds in a generally north–south direction. Legend has it that this river is named after Huang Xie of the Chu Kingdom in the 4th century BC. The much smaller Woosung River, which joins the Huangpu in the heart of the present-day city, runs in an east–west direction, linking Shanghai to the ancient city of Suzhou. Maps dating from the 11th century show the Woosung to be ‘an immense sheet of water’, up to 5 miles wide and unconnected to the Huangpu, which was then an ‘insignificant canal’ flowing due east from the village of Lunghua directly into the sea.¹⁶

These two waterways were both tidal, but the Woosung especially was prone to flooding, which caused immense devastation. In AD 1403, an enormous inundation so overwhelmed the region that the then Emperor was compelled to send a representative to try solve the problem. Much effort was expended on building dykes and constructing dams so that from 1403 a small tributary linking the Huangpu and the Woosung was widened in an attempt to regulate the flow of these rivers. The canal was known as the Fan Jia Bang (often referred to as the Van Ka Pang) named after a family called Fan who lived in the area. Over time the Fan Jia Bang attracted the flow of the Huangpu, while the upper Woosung contracted. With the volume of the Huangpu now flowing to the sea via the Fan Jia Bang and the lower Woosung, the watercourse widened and became a large river. In 1569 the Woosung was modified by a man named Hai Rui, who reduced its flow drastically, transforming it into the diminutive tributary that it is today. After foreigners arrived in Shanghai, the Woosung became known as Soochow (Suzhou) Creek.

The unique city

Shanghai can claim to be unique among ancient Chinese cities. The annular wall reflected the city's relatively minor political status among China's larger imperial cities that employed rectangular walls and linear street patterns. Lacking a systematised street layout and with its irregular street plan originating in age-old methods of transportation along the rivers and creeks that traversed the city, Shanghai's design was distinct from that of traditional Chinese urban centres that observe formalised rectilinear street patterns and the strict arrangement of individual components, such as courtyard houses, temples and state buildings. As Johnson observes, the pattern of Shanghai's development ‘was one of organic growth rather than structured design’.¹⁷ The more conservative, accustomed to the formal delineation of urban spaces, frowned upon Shanghai's atypical form and its unusual buildings designed for mixed use which predominated over the stereotypical arrangement of courtyard dwellings popular elsewhere in China.

The region around Shanghai showing other walled settlements and their dependence on the abundant waterways. The Yangtze River is visible at the top

These particularities of layout and building confirmed Shanghai's cultural and commercial diversity long before foreigners arrived. Its physical characteristics reflected the city as a melting pot of new ideas—its buildings, their function, style and setting. Shanghai's predilection for trade is largely responsible for its renowned tolerance of cultural diversity and demonstrates an important departure from traditional Chinese urban design. This was a factor that remained evident throughout Shanghai's history.

Notes and References

¹ Hosea Ballou Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol 1–3, Longmans, Green (London, New York), 1910–18, Vol 1, p 347.

² II Kounin and Alex Yaron, The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai, Post Mercury Co (Shanghai), 1940, Foreword.

³ H Lang, Shanghai Considered Socially, Shanghai American Presbyterian Mission Press (Shanghai), 1875, p 35.

⁴ Hang-Jia-Hu is named after the cities of Hangzhou, Jiaxin and Huzhou whose wealth was derived from the trade of silk and tea.

⁵ Lang, Shanghai Considered Socially, p 6, says that the settlement ‘Shanghai Chin’ (meaning the market of Shanghai) receives a mention in archives dated 1015, but the source is not stated.

⁶ General Description of Shanghai and its Environs, Mission Press (Shanghai), 1850.

⁸ Quoted by Chang Che Seang, General Description of Shanghai and its Environs, p 43.

¹¹ Carlos Augusto Montalto de Jesus, Historic Shanghai, Shanghai Mercury (Shanghai), 1909, p xvii.

¹² There remains some ambiguity as to when the city wall was actually built. Montalto de Jesus, Historic Shanghai, p xviii and Kounin and Yaron, Diamond Jubilee, give 1544; General Description of Shanghai and its Environs, gives 1552; John Wharton Maclellan, The Story of Shanghai from the Opening of the Port to Foreign Trade (North-China Herald, Shanghai, 1889), gives 1555 and Lang, Shanghai Considered Socially, states 1570. It seems likely that the wall was built in haste following the attacks in 1553 and would have been improved thereafter.

¹⁴ Robert Fortune, A Journey to the Tea Districts of China, John Murray (London), 1852, p 12.

¹⁵ George Lanning and Samuel Couling, The History of Shanghai, Kelly &Walsh (Shanghai), 1921, p 271.

¹⁷ Linda Cooke Johnson, Shanghai:from Market Town to Treaty Port, 1074–1858, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1995, p 71.

Chapter Two

Establishing and Legalising the Foreign Settlements

The first Custom House on the foreign Bund

Shanghae is by far the most important station for foreign trade on the coast of China. No other town with which I am acquainted possesses such advantages: it is the great gate—the principal entrance, in fact, to the Chinese empire … there can be no doubt that in a few years it will not only rival Canton, but become a place of far greater importance.

Robert Fortune, Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China, 1847

Foreign contact with China extends back thousands of years, but with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and advances in maritime trade, China's relationship with the outside world changed fundamentally in the 19th century. The British occupation of Shanghai in 1842 can be traced to earlier encounters with the Chinese administration and previous attempts by foreigners to avoid integration with the Chinese while seeking preferential terms of trade and to establish a permanent settlement in China, whereas the Chinese endeavoured in vain to flush foreign influence from their closeted kingdom. This clash of cultures over the pursuit of trade proved an unavoidable catalyst to the development of Shanghai from a Chinese city to Asia's largest foreign enclave and one of the largest cities in the world.

Early foreign contact with China

The roots of foreign settlement in Shanghai extend to the southern port of Canton and were nourished by the desire among foreign nations to conduct trade with the impervious Chinese empire. In 1757, the Emperor declared Canton the sole port open to foreigners, and so created the city's monopoly of trade with the West, while the equally monopolistic East India Company exercised its exclusive rights to British trade in China. This situation was far from perfect and a grudging acceptance of the status quo evolved into dissent and corruption among both the British and the Chinese. Britain aspired to fill the wardrobes of China with its cotton and wool, but succeeded instead in extracting far greater quantities of tea and silk, troubling the British Exchequer with a growing balance of payments deficit. However, the answer to all of Britain's problems and the cause of most of China's arrived from India in the form of the poppy seed.

The European aristocracy now enjoyed the luxuries of green tea and silk thread, bought and paid for by China's addiction to opium. Through a sustained campaign of international drug dealing of vast proportions, the British Empire employed narcotics to prise open the door that had until the 19th century so successfully barred access to the Chinese Empire. Despite the opium ban by imperial decree in 1800, trade in the drug continued through unofficial channels, lining the pockets of Cantonese officials who had much to lose from its prohibition and amassing untold wealth in influential foreign trading firms, many of which later dominated Shanghai. Corruption and unfair trading fuelled a rapidly deteriorating relationship between the Chinese and foreigners in Canton, providing the impetus for foreign merchants to seek alternative inroads into China's vast and untapped commercial potential. Addicted to opium and paying for this expensive craving in silver, China was forced to succumb.

Foreign merchants were prohibited from dealing directly with the native population in Canton, doing business instead through a syndicate of 14 middlemen known as the ‘Co-hong’. Enjoying the privileges of this oligopoly, the Cantonese authorities subjected the constrained foreign merchants to all manner of ‘extortion and intimidation’,¹