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Pre-
World War II China described. "
Bits of China: A Cine-Arts
Library Film."
Silent.
Public domain film from the
Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The New York Times,
December 24, 1877, p.3:
AN AMERICAN IN
CHINA.
CONTRASTS OF CHINA AND
JAPAN.
THE
COAST—WOOSUNG—TELEGRAPHIC TROUBLES—
SHANGHAI HOSPITALITY AND ITS DECLINE—
THE STATE OF TRADE—
OLD WAYS OF BUSINESS AND THE
NEW WAYS—
HINTS FOR AMERICAN MERCHANTS—
TRADE BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES AND SHANGHAI.
Special Correspondence of the
New-York Times.
SHANGHAI, China, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 1877.
- China and
Japan lie close to each other, and many persons in
America are of opinion that the two countries are much alike. But it needs only a very brief visit to dispel such an impression, and if the traveler is in a hurry he can satisfy himself on the subject without going ashore in either country. The coast of Japan is almost invariable bold, abounding in sharp headlands and indented with bays that frequently open where least expected, and offer safe retreats from the storms that sweep over these waters. The coast of China, in the parts nearest to Japan, is low and flat, and you look in vain for abrupt cliffs and promontories.
-
Light boats and buoys are the principal guides to the pilots across the bar of the
Yangtse River [
Changjiang River,
Yangtze River], as the low banks present few objects of any use as landmarks. The mouth of the river is of such great width that one cannot see across it from one side to the other, and the sounding-lead is an important factor in its navigation.
-
The distance from
Nagasaki across the
Yellow Sea is only 450 miles, and we wonder, as we traverse this now well-known route, that it has only been opened in our day.
Down to 1858 very few ships had ventured there, and the coast of Japan was an ultima thule which few thought to reach. Now, there is a weekly steam line each way between China and Japan, and the irregular steamers and sailing ships are almost as numerous as the regular ones. The
Oriental world has moved greatly in the last two decades.
- Some of our maps locate
Shanghai on the Yangtse-Kiang, a little distance from its mouth, but the fact is the city is 12 miles away from the great river, and on the banks of the
Whampoa [
Huangpu River]. The Whampoa enters the Yangtse at Woosung [annexed into Shanghai in 1964], and here the
Government has recently erected forts to protect the passage and secure the exclusion of a hostile fleet in case China should be so unlucky as to be at war with another country.
- Some of the deepest draught ships do not go above Woosung, but discharge and receive their cargoes at that
point. Consequently, there is nearly always a small grove of masts at Woosung, and quite a town has sprung up there.
- A railway—the only one in China—connects Woosung and Shanghai, and there is also a telegraph line. Both railway and telegraph have given great trouble to the
Chinese, and there are frequent interruptions, particularly of the latter.
The Celestials do not comprehend the working of the telegraph, and their understanding of it is that the foreigners employ agile and invisible devils to run along the wires to convey messages
...
The principal
American product now imported into China is petroleum, and the demand is yearly increasing.
The Chinese have petroleum wells, but make little use of the oil, and are quite ignorant of the mode of refining it.
Of machinery, they take very little, their chief demand in this line being for weighing apparatus and simple machines for agricultural operations. They buy much of our silver and quicksilver, and will probably buy more in the future; they have bought some of our lead, but very little of any other metal. Some of those with whom I have conversed on the subject think that the
United States ought to secure a portion, at least, of the lead trade in China, and also that of bar-iron. The consumption of the latter is very great, and if we can send iron to
England, as we have already done, and sell it at a profit, we ought to make an effort for the Chinese business.
Last year the foreign imports at Shanghai were 47,
000,000 taels [1 tael = 1.3 ounces of silver], in value over $60,000,000; of this amount the United States had about $
1,000,000 worth, exclusive of coined silver.
Surely, we should be able to make a better showing than this.
T. W. K.
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- published: 25 May 2013
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