Page:The Chinese Empire. A General & Missionary Survey.djvu/136

82 the Yangtse, is a large and bustling commercial city. It was captured by the British in 1842 after an heroic resistance by the Tartar garrison. When all was lost Hai-ling, the general of the troops, immolated himself in his yamen, rather than submit to the "foreign barbarian."

Yangchow, 15 miles north of Chinkiang, and on the banks of the Grand Canal, is famous for its wealth and the beauty of its women. Marco Polo was governor of this city for three years (about A.D. 1280).

The city of Shanghai is better known to foreigners than any other place in China. It was taken by the British forces in 1842, and was one of the five ports thrown open to the trade of the world at the conclusion of the war of that date. Its position at the mouth of the Yangtse makes it the emporium for Central China. Where, when the port was opened, was a towpath for the trackers, who laboriously dragged their junks up the river, a handsome street, called the Bund, now fronts the Hwangpu river, and what was then a wide expanse of paddy fields is now a dense city of Chinese houses and wealthy shops. Beyond this, away into the country, five miles to the north and west of the Bund, stretch the residences of foreign merchants.

The total foreign population of the International Settlement of Shanghai is 11,497. Of this number 3713 are British, 2157 are Japanese, 1329 are Portuguese, 991 are American, 785 are German, and 393 are French. There is a French Settlement outside the International Settlement in which there are a few hundred more French subjects, the remaining population being divided amongst twenty other nationalities. The Chinese population is 452,716. If we consider the large Chinese population in the French Concession, in the native city, and in the villages just outside the bounds of the Settlement, it is probable that the Chinese population of Shanghai is not less than one million.

The first railway in China was laid down between Shanghai and Woosung (12 miles) in 1876. The Chinese were bitterly opposed to this enterprise from the first, and after a few months they succeeded in buying the whole