Show h a n g h a vistas vi s t a s 01 A 14 lop L curbstone barbers in shanghais Shan ghais native quarter life in shanghai before japanese shells began their destructive work prepared by national geographic society washington D C service lct N THE Whang poo approaching ON 0 pro aching shanghai there is little to indicate that one is entering china except for fleets of native fishing junks moving about in the river the river banks are lined on both sides with oil supply depots smoking factory factor y chimneys warehouses silk fila tures repair docks and strange things of foreign import shanghais Shan ghais water front skyline is decidedly occidental in appearance and most strikingly impressive until the present century low commodious chinese buildings or two and three story structures served a majority of the business concerns but the introduction of excellently equipped modern offices initiated a period of extensive building the tendency of shanghais Shan ghais building program has been distinctly skyward in the last few years because of the congestion in the business areas occasioned by its meteoric expansion in trade construction of tall buildings however lo wever even those of eight and ten en stories presents considerable difficulty to the architects because of the nature of the footing upon which the foundations must be laid the soil is entirely alluvial deposit but in spite of the obvious handicaps arch architects are exploring new heights for shanghai with 10 and 15 story structures the chinese quick to appreciate this his upward direction of city build ing ng have begun erecting tall department part ment stores tea houses guild halls balls and other structures which iring bring them financial advantage and modernize the appearance of shanghai radical indeed are the changes that hat have taken place in architectural expansion in the last decade including vast alterations in the skyline of the metropolis in the old native city in a few minutes walk from the most up to the moment districts of shanghai however one can be in surroundings that are little altered since the day when the first foreign firm marked out its business site in the muddy concession within the bantao district at the southern side of the city lies the old chinese settlement or native city modernization has been slow t to move in this locality and native life takes much the same course that hat it followed before steamship screws began stirring up the muddy Whang poo around the fishing junks and sampans sam pans even here however there have been een changes since the republic has come into existence the old wall that surrounded the city has een demolished narrow cobbled streets with open sewers running down their centers gradually have given aven way to more cleanly concrete passages loathsome beggars have somehow been reduced in numbers although there are still more than enouf enough h of the pitiable wretches north of the international settlement lies the thickly populated chinese district of chapai chapai borders upon the creek boundary and is just back of the foreign district of hongkee Hong kew this district before the sino japanese battles several years ago was somewhat more modern and progressive gres sive than the native city region here in chapai were located large chinese business concerns devoted to exporting and importing here had sprung up offices factories and printing establishments among the last named the commercial press largest publishing 0 concern in in china valued at one and a quarter million dollars in this locality too is the shanghai railway station foreign S settlements ettle ments of shanghai but the focus of au all shanghai is the foreign settlements for in them have been the remarkable incentive and expanding force that have built this modern seaport first allotted a portion of land on the south side of creek following the treaty of in 1842 when shanghai was indicated as one of the five treaty ports british busi ness established itself and expanded digging drains and filling cana cabalu Y to make the concession habitable six years later france was conceded the territory between the british concession and the native city and only a few years afterward americans leased land in the hongkee district which extends along the Whang poo water front north of creek where the river makes a sharp curve to the right this so called american settle i ment was never organized as such but was incorporated with the british district in 1863 thus came into being the international settlement premier nucleus of modern shanghai other portions of land have been added on the west where old timers used to bag snipe in off days from their offices the french chose to remain apart and today continue to administer their own concession as a separate unit the years have seen a fast amov ing panorama since the early days when the international territorial fusion came into being received nourishment and became what has often been termed the model settlement tl the administration of the international settlement has been in many ways a unique experiment perhaps without parallel in any other place and results make it evident that the shanghai municipal council has served the settlement well ell governed by elected council the council is composed of a group of members elected by the taxpayers taxpayer 3 of british american japanese and more recently chinese nationality the number has been increased increase d from time to time until 15 members are now included in the group that directs the affairs of the settlement of people paving policing planning a multitude of tasks face the paternal body which gratis guards the interests of international shanghai A similar but smaller task confronts 17 other men who handle the affairs of the french territory with its nearly inhabitants because shan shanghai 0 hai has not always had a peaceful career troops of the four chief foreign nationalities have been maintained to give necessary protection to the residents of the city shanghai has also had a volunteer corps with a personnel of more than 2000 which was organized at the time of the stress of necessity during strikes and when the pot of chinese political politic al aff affairs airs had been boiling over big bustling shanghai this titan of commerce in far asia lives b beyond e the boundaries of any one settlement or nationality it commands all of them together for its life and trade well beyond three million people are numbered in the districts that form the wh whole ole of greater shanghai cosmopolitan too as only one of the worlds largest seaports can be it records in its census 50 foreign nationalities the commercial comme acial capital can also call from its midst representatives speaking practically all the numerous dialects in china if one should ask for further confusion in the linguistic babel picturesque scenes on the band the facets of life and activity of the metropolis are as multiple as the peoples that compose it stand any day along the bund and watch the variety of traffic that passes under the signals of a tall bearded sikh traffic policeman electric tramcars tram cars loaded buses and trackless trams filled to all available standing room motor cars and trucks of every kind and size although american makes are in the majority wheelbarrows that trundle along with tremendous loads coolies turned beasts of burden bearing bales and baskets ot of incredible weight great two wheeled trucking carts with a as many as six or eight per perspiring s coolies straining at the pull ropes ricks has well past the period of 0 their best usefulness in these days of increasing taxi service trying by their very importunity to gain a stinted living bicycles carriages pedestrians the whole contrasting procession passes on another street a chinese wedding palanquin or a long funeral cortege moves along with all ali the red and tinsel glitter that china assembles around these two events at the corner the procession waits tor for a traffic jam to clear before it can proceed |