Flower Boat on the Wusung at Shanghai.
XV.
Shanghai.
Duration of Stay from 25th July to 11th August, 1858.
A stroll through the old Chinese quarter.—Book-stalls.—Public Baths.—Chinese Pawnbrokers.—Foundling hospital.—The Hall of Universal Benevolence.—Sacrificial Hall of Medical Faculty.—City prison.—Temple of the Goddess of the Sea.—Chinese taverns.—Tea-garden.—Temple of Buddha.—Temple of Confucius.—Taouist convent.—Chinese nuns.—An apothecary's store, and what is sold therein.—Public schools.—Christian places of worship.—Native industry.—Cenotaphs to the memory of beneficent females.—A Chinese patrician family.—The villas of the foreign merchants.—Activity of the London Missionary Society.—Dr. Hobson.—Chinese medical works.—Leprosy.—The American Missionary Society.—Dr. Bridgman.—Main-tze tribe.—Mission schools for Chinese boys and girls.—The North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.—Meeting in honour of the Members of the Novara Expedition.—Mons. de Montigny.—Baron Gros.—Interview with the Táu-Tái, or chief Chinese official of the city.—The Jesuit mission at Sikkawéi.—The Pagoda of Long-Sáh.—A Chinese dinner.—Serenade by the German singing-club.—The Germans in China.—Influence of the Treaties of Tien-Tsin and Pekin upon commerce.—Silk.—Tea.—The Chinese sugar-cane.—Various species of Bamboos employed in the manufacture of paper.—The varnish tree.—The tallow tree.—The wax-tree.—Mosquito tobacco.—Articles of import.—Opium.—The Tai-ping rebels.—Departure from Shanghai.—A typhoon in the China sea.—Sight the island of Puynipet in the Caroline Archipelago.
Shanghai, or Shanghai-Hein (the city near the sea), is divided into the Chinese city proper, enclosed within walls
twenty-four feet in height, and the foreign quarter, which has been laid out beyond the walls since the year 1843, and is as much distinguished by elegance as by comfort. Old Shanghai, only accessible by three of the six gates with which it is furnished, contains 250,000 inhabitants in a superficial area of nine Li, or about two and one-third English miles, and, including the population of neighbouring towns, who are constantly flocking to and fro, about 400,000. The streets are filthy and singularly narrow, so much so that occasionally it is difficult for two men to pass each other, the small cross streets vividly recalling Venice, or the "lanes" of London. It is with difficulty, and only by a constant succession of cries and hearty buffets, that the bearers of merchandise can force their way through these intricate passages, and find their way to their destination. The houses, for the most part one and two storeys in height, usually consist of shops on the ground-floor, each with a flaming superscription in gigantic characters, which, the better to arrest the curiosity of the passers-by, is generally hung diagonally across the narrow street. The living throng, which throughout the entire day surges to and fro here, is so immense and so various that it leaves upon a stranger an impression even deeper than that made by the crowds and bustle of Piccadilly or Regent Street, on a fine day in the height of "the season." The grotesqueness and filth of almost everything that meets the eye rather adds to the singularity of the spectacle, and while the visitor on the one
hand speedily finds ample justification for extricating himself from the din and confusion, he nevertheless encounters at every step some new object of attraction and absorbing interest.
Entering the city through the east gate, on whose walls, by way of example to the multitude, are suspended in sacks and wicker-work numerous skulls of rebels and murderers, on whom justice has been done, we find ourselves in China street, one of the principal streets of Shanghai, and in which are most of the best class of native shops. It is however no wider or cleaner than the other streets of the city, and might be termed a "lane" with far more propriety than a street. We were conveyed within the lofty, gloomy "enceinte" of the walls in the sedan-chair of the country, after which, under the guidance of Mr. Muirhead, an English missionary, who in the kindest manner had offered to be our cicerone, we proceeded to stroll through the town.
Close to the east gate we entered a book-stall, in which were heaped up immense piles of stitched books. A number of Chinese in white nankeen jackets, their foreheads smooth shaved, and each with a "tail" behind dependent to the heels, started forward to inquire the strangers' wants, and minister to them. Our inquiries however were by no means merely dictated by the desire to gratify a silly curiosity. A learned countryman, Dr. Pfizmaier, one of the profoundest of Chinese scholars, had intrusted us with a list of fourteen rare Chinese books, the purchase of which seemed to us specially