page_title: Peter Felix Richards
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Felix Richards / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Shanghai's foreign concessions in 1855 (in red), overlaid (in green) with the contemporary street pattern in 1910 http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-india/tales/t-map.htm
context_page_description: Peter Felix Richards was a pioneering Scottish merchant in post-Treaty of Nanjing Shanghai, and the founder of the Richards Hotel and Restaurant, the first foreign hotel in China, and the forerunner to the Astor House Hotel.
context_section_description: On 29 August 1842, the unequal Treaty of Nanking was signed ending the First Opium War (1839–1842) between the British and Qing Empires, and establishing five treaty ports in China where British merchants could operate. In addition to Canton, Amoy, Foochow, and Ningpo, the port of Shanghai was opened officially to foreign trade on 17 November 1843. According to Shanghai historian F.L. Hawks Pott, "The foreign population of the Settlement gradually increased. In 1844 it was 50, in the following year, 90, and after five years it had grown to 175. In addition there was a floating population, consisting of the men on shore from the ships in harbour."
caption: Map of Shanghai, 1855
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