The Coolidge examiner., 1937-10-21

NF ALL the rivers streak
Y ing the map of China,
only two, the Whangpoo
and the Yangtze, have played
important roles in the Sino-
japanese incident.
The Whangpoo, the river on whose
banks Shanghai rises, played a
double role in the tragedy of the
embattled city. For Chinese and
Japanese. the river and its ada
cent mud flats were a heavily bonn
barded battlefield For the occi-
dentals marooned in Shanghai, the
sluggish muddy stream was the
nearest exit
The Whangpoo river is usually the
most anonymous stream in China.
Whenever Shanghai is spoken Of as
seaport. the Whangpoo is being
sighted, for this relatively little
known river actually makes posi-
bic the commercial importance Of
China's largest city.
The Whangpoo can truly be called
the author of Shanghai's success
story: from fishing village TO world
port in less than a century. Only
native junks Of Chinese fishermen
sailed the Whangpoo and tied up at
Fthe walled village Of Shanghai in
1842, when foreign trade was first
permitted by treaty to enter. since
then, the muddy creek has borne
sail and steam ships from all the
seven seas, until the traffic has con-
structed a modern metropolis on the
Whangpoo's mud flats.
Shanghai is two steps removed
from the ocean. Vessels must trav-
el into the broad yellow mouth of the
Yangtze and turn to the left into its
tributary, the Whangpoo, for 13
miles before reaching seaport"
Shanghai.
Constantly hanging over the river
is the threat of sitting up. Two
million cubic yards of mud a year
must be dredged to keep the chan
mel open to a low-tide depth of %
feet. A treacherous mud-bar turks
where the river empties into the
YangtZe, and here some sea-going
vessels transfer their cargo to light
ers rather than cross the bar.
Fifty years ago Shanghai was pit
led as a doomed city, about to be
cut off from foreign trade entirely
by the menacing silt WarshipS and
ocean liners, however. still ride
at anchor in Shanghais harbor,
keeping China's leading city among
the worlds ten busiest ports. For
eign shipping, without reckoning
mating winged sampans and heavy
junks that swarm about the harbor,
amounts annually to over 80 mil
lion tons.
Makes the City's Waterfront.
Beside the Whangpoo runs the
world-famous Bund, crowded thor
oughfare replete with foreign and
local color. Clubs, banks, business
houses, and consulates focus inter-
national interest along the water
front. With approximately 10000
foreigners of so different national
tiles in Shanghai on business and
pleasure, the Whangpoo bears a
great responsibility as commercial
entrance and safety exit.
Paralleling the river on the route
from the YangtZe to the metropolis
is the first railroad built in China.
But it has not yet even challenged
the supremacy Of water transporta
ton in linking the port with the sea.
Clipper ships moored in the
Whangpoo, and restless to recruit
a full crew by hook or crook and
sail for home, brought picturesque
idiom into the English language: ito
Shanghai"
The YangtZe, while neither the
longest nor largest river in the
world, is a Chinese combination of
Mississippi. Colorado and Potomac.
Like the Mississippi, it is the larg-
est stream in the country; like the
Colorado, it flows through the deep
est gorges; and like the Potomac,
it has the capital, Marking, a city
of historic associations.
Compared with the other great
rivers of the world the 3,000-mile
length of the Yangtze is exceeded
by the Mississippi-Missouri, the
Amazon and the Nile. In volume it
ranks third, after the Amazon and
Congo, but in one respect it leads all
others: with its tributary rivers,
lakes and canals it constitutes the
inland water system most used by
man as a carrier of commerce.
Vast Basin Of the Yangtze.
The Yangtze drains in all some
10000 square miles, an area equal
to one quarter that of the United
States. In its basin live ITS, 900, 900
people, one-tenth of the population
of the entire world. A broad, deep