The post and cable offices are on a street to our left, between us and the public gardens. From the three flags on the poles half a mile away in the American quarter to the wires stretching overhead, there is nothing Chinese, though there are about 300,000 natives to the 12,000 foreigners in the settlement. But off at the south is a swarming city of nearly a million natives which offers an effective contrast to western civilization. You might not realize that you are in China were it not for the jinrikshas and wheelbarrows in the street, the one for travelers, the other for luggage and freight. Aside from sampans and houseboats, the boats along the river front are quite modern.
Shanghai is also a railroad terminal.
Steamers for this port follow up the Amazon-like mouth of the Yangzi River, twenty miles. There they debark their passengers who take coastwise steamers up the Wusang, twelve miles to Shanghai. Shanghai was one of the ports thrown open to trade by the treaty of 1842. It is associated with General Gordon's repulse of the invading Taiping forces in 1860-1867. Photographer James Ricalton's discussion of this photograph is available.