Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/385

Rh Protestant mission in Shanghai, the celebrated Dr. Medhurst having settled here with Dr. Lockhart in 1843.

The Nanking Road is intersected at right angles by a number of roads which run north and south to the boundaries of the original Settlement, and are continued thence by means of seven bridges over the Soochow Creek and eight over the Yang-king-pang into the Hongkew district on the one side of the French Concession or the other. The first of these is the Szechuen Road, which, if followed in a northerly direction for about two miles, leads to the outskirts of the Settlement, where are to be found in close proximity to one another the rifle range and the new recreation ground consisting of some 258 mow of land. Along the road or adjacent to it there are several important public institutions. At the corner of Peking Road is the recently erected Chinese Imperial Post Office, followed by the British Post Office. A few yards from the bridge over the Soochow Creek is the road leading to the Lyceum Theatre at the back of the British Consulate. At the point of intersection with North Soochow Road stands the General Hospital, a building of utility rather than ornament, dating from 1864. A little way down Boone Road is the Shanghai Public School, which owes its foundation to the Masonic fraternity by whom it has been handed over to the municipality. Near by is the Hongkew Market, the scene of great activity in the early morning. Along Quinsan Road lies the Anglo-Chinese College, one of several agencies that have been established for the education of the Chinese, who number 510,000 out of a total estimated population of 524,000 and contribute so large a proportion of the rates of the Settlement. In Haining Road is the Pan Tuck Aye, a Buddhist Nunnery. The central shrine in the temple attached to this retreat is dedicated to Sieh Kyah Maya Nue Vah, the Buddha of "the past, present, and future." To the right and left respectively of the central shrine are gilded figures of O-mi-doo, representing "the craving of a human soul for a life beyond, full of light and happiness," and Kwanyin, the goddess of mercy. Around the walls are ranged the eighteen Lohans, sainted members of the Indian Church. Next to the Pan Tuck Aye is the Kwang Zan Ee Yuen, a hospital maintained for the sick and indigent by the Cantonese guilds. It may be mentioned in passing that a Municipal Isolation Hospital for Chinese, with accommodation for 150 patients, and a separate block for out-patients, has been provided in this locality at a cost of Tls. 21,000, while the St. Luke's Hospital, containing 100 beds for men and 50 for women, has done splendid work among the Chinese since 1869, in which year it was founded by the American Protestant Episcopal Church Mission. In Range Road, the site until 1897 of the Volunteers' Rifle Butts, is the Victoria Nursing Home, which was erected by the inhabitants at a cost of more than Tls. 32.000 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria.

Running parallel to the Szechuen Road from one end of the Settlement to the other is Honan Road. Abutting upon this thoroughfare, some three hundred yards to the south of Nanking Road, is the Central Police Station, a dignified building of red brick in the Early Renaissance style erected during 1891–94 from competitive designs at a cost of Tls. 76,000. Adjoining are the headquarters of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. This building, also in the Renaissance style, is of four storeys, and