Shanghai
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Shanghai. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
shang-ha'i, a city of China. It is situated on a short river, twelve miles above its entrance into the estuary of the Yang-tse-kiang. It is situated, therefore, near the most easterly point of central China. It is the natural outlet for one of the largest and most highly cultivated regions on the globe. The Chinese city is surrounded by brick walls pierced by seven gates. The streets are narrow, crooked, and dirty beyond description. There are no native buildings of architectural prominence. Aside from its commanding commercial position, the city may be said to be without interest. Shanghai was opened to foreign commerce in 1843. The French and English, and later the Americans, formed settlements below the city and without its walls. They form a continuous suburb, and have leagued together for mutual protection and police duty, forming a considerable and well built city of their own. The river forms a commodious and safe anchorage for large ships. Quays extend along the water frontage for many miles. The wharfage is divided up into sections. Foreign ships, as well as Chinese vessels, cast anchor, each under the protection of its national flag. The English quarter, in particular, presents a frontage of imposing government buildings. A complete system of canals, chains of lakes, and railways connect Shanghai with the adjacent region. Shanghai is the great Chinese seat of export for tea, cotton, raw silk, silk goods, rice, hides, and native cloths. The principal imports are opium, cutlery, hardware, kerosene, coal, and sugar. American trade with China is conducted chiefly through the merchants of Shanghai. The consulate is an important one. Shanghai is a center of missionary effort. The London Missionary Society, the American Presbyterian Mission, and the French Society for the Dissemination of the Faith have headquarters here. Hospitals, printing presses, and other means for the conversion and improvement of the natives are maintained on a scale unknown elsewhere in China. The climate is much like that of Charleston, South Carolina , with the disadvantage, however, that the city is located on low, muddy ground, and is subject constantly to malarial fevers. The old city lacks sanitation. The winters are, on the whole, pleasant. Snow and ice are seen, usually for a short time. The summers are swelteringly hot. Europeans find it necessary to go elsewhere into the mountains or to seaport resorts to recover their strength. Were it not for the opportunity of making money, Europeans would desert the city. The population in 1907 was 651,000. The population of the foreign quarter was 6,774. The English and Scotch predominate. See China ; Peking ; Canton
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and seaport of China, in the province of Kiangsu; near the junction of the Hwangpu and the Wu-sung rivers . The Chinese city proper is inclosed within walls 24 feet high, the streets being narrow and dirty, and the buildings low, crowded, and for the most part unimportant. In 1843 Shanghai was opened as one of the five treaty ports , and an important foreign settlement is now established (with a separate government) outside the city walls. The Wu-sung here is about 34 mile wide, and increases to over 1 mile at its outlet into the Yang-tsze, at the port of Wu-sung. Along the bank of the river extends a wide "bund" or quay, with a bulwark of stone and numerous stone jetties, for landing and loading cargo. A municipal council is elected by the English and Americans, and another by the French , whose quarter is separately administered . The subjects and citizens of each nationality are under the protection of their respective consuls, and a complete judicial staff has been established, forming at Shanghai a supreme court, with jur jurisdiction over all British subjects in China and Japan. The Chinese authorities retain complete control over all shipping dues, duties on imports and exports, etc. The chier imports are cottons, yarns, woolens, kerosene, dyes, sugar, cotton machinery and metals; and the exports, hides, cotton yarn, wool, silk, tea, rice, and raw cotton. Most of the foreign trade is in the hands of British merchants. Pop. (1918 ) 1,000,000. town of the
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe a walled Chinese city ringed by self-governing foreign settlements: Collier's in 1921 still notes a British-and-American municipal council, a separate French concession, and a supreme court at Shanghai with jurisdiction over British subjects in China and Japan. That extraterritorial system is gone. The International Settlement was occupied by Japan after December 1941 and formally surrendered by Britain and the United States in 1943; the old city walls had already been pulled down around 1912. Shanghai's population, given as 651,000 for 1907 by Aiton's and 1,000,000 for 1918 by Collier's, is now over 24 million, and since the Pudong development zone opened in 1990 the city has become China's financial centre, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (reopened 1990) and the 632-metre Shanghai Tower, finished in 2015.
Written for this edition, 2026.