The Coolidge examiner., 1935-02-22

before he goes wearlly to bed
A woman beggar, carrying a poor
ly dressed babe. holds her hand out
toward an ermlne-wrapped lady who
Is carrying a Pekingese dog.
Day or night, summer or winter,
life gllmpses on the street are as
diverse and fragmentary as these
words | use In trying to suggest
them. But all summarize Shanghai.
Activity on Waterways.
Turning from streets to water
ways, one can also observe cease
less activity on the Soochow, Sic
cawei. and other creeks, as well as
on the Whangpoo river.
At one time Soochow creek was
stream Of much greater size than
II Is now. but through the years
II has become sllted and much
canallzed. Thousands OF Chinese
craft and houseboats animate this
creek which cuts a sinuous path
down through the city and joins the
Whangpoo at the northern end OF
the Bund.
Vegetables. rice, and other prod
ucts that supply Shanghai's heavy
demand for food supplies and goods
for traDs-shlpment are brought in
from the country districts and from
Soochow way. where the creek con-
meets with Chlna's historic Grand
canal
And the Whangpoo! More than
thlrty-five million tons OF foreign
shipping cut muddy burrows up the
Whangpoo in year. according to
Shanghal's clearance papers.
Large ocean liners and freight
ers lie at dock along the water
front. The japanese shipping COM
panies have considerable berthing
capacity along the Hongkow settle
ment front, but American and other
shipping concerns have established
wharves and godowns farther up
the river, on the Pootung side,
across the Whangpoo. above the
city. Lumber ships, tankers. tramp
steamers, and warshlps lie In mid
stream. Ships of many flags look
to Shanehals trade.
Statistics show that the harbor
has accommodated as many as 156
merchant vessels and % warships
ct the same time, besides, of course.
large numbers of miscellaneous
smaller craft.
Projects to Improve the Harbor.
Despite the figures on ship move
ment, there is much to be desired
of the Whangpoo harbor, as Shang-
hal looks toward her future.
The mouth of the river has a
tendency to silt up and also to form
shadows along the channel, and thus
to make 1t difficult for ships Of deep
draft to pass even at high tide. Ex-
tensive labor on the part of the
Whangpoo conservancy board has
made improvements in the harbor,
so that pace has been kept with the
growing need.
1t is not the Whangpoo, however,
which causes the greatest concern In
planning for the deeper-draft YES
sells of the future, but rather the
sand bars In the YangtZe mouth.
The fact that FIVE billion cubic feet
of sediment debouch into the sea
each year to pile up at the river
mouth presents no small problem.
AS one comes up the river from
Woosung. a branch of the Shanghai
Nanking railway may be seen on
the right. Here is the route of the
first railway to be built in China.
Today there is a railway between
Shanghai and Hangchow, extending
ON TO Ningpo. The Shanghai-Nan-
king line taps northern territory,
and after one crosses the YangtZe
river at Pukow, on the opposite
bank from Nanking, one connects
with the railroad to Peiping, or
goes through Tientsin, and on up
into Manchuria, to catch the Trans
Siberian to Europe.
The introduction of wagon-lit
cars has recently made travel in
Peiping a matter Of comfort; and
through branch lines the whole ter
ricory tapped by the Peiping Han
kow and Changsha railways, as well
as the Shantung branch. is brought
into close contact with the metrop-
oils Of Shanghai.