1934 Jih-Sin Geographical Institute Map of Shanghai, China

This is a rare Minguo 23 or 1934 bi-lingual map of pre-war Shanghai issued by the Chinese KMT Nationalist geographer Su Jiarong of the Jih-Sin Geographical Institute. Centered on the Bund, the map covers the International Settlement, the French Concession, the old Chinese City, and parts of NanTao and Pudong. Su Jiarong, the map's author, was a prominent Chinese book and map publisher in Shanghai whose anti-Japanese publications were aggressively collected and destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai (1937 - 1945), making his works exceptionally rare today.

Manuscript Highlights of War Road Goal

In the Japanese controlled Hongkou district, the location of Tilanqiao Prison (提篮桥监狱), then known as the Ward Road Gaol, is highlighted in manuscript. This prison was built in 1903 to hold those convicted of crimes in the British controlled International Settlement. Until 1941 it was predominately run by British and Indian officials and primarily housed Chinese prisoners. After this date, and the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the prison was used by the Japanese military to house both civil and political prisoners. It is of interest that in 1944, after this map's author, Su Jiarong, was arrested by Japanese military police for his seditionist publications, he was consigned to this infamous prison, where two years later he died from torture. It is unclearly if the prison's highlighting is related to Jiarong's imprisonment, or other factors.

Shanghai International Settlement

The Shanghai International Settlement was created in 1863 when the British and American Shanghai enclaves merged. These concessions had been granted to England and the United States as part of the Unequal Treaties that followed the Opium Wars. From about 1854 the settlements were governed by the Shanghai Municipal Council, a British dominated board of government officials and powerful merchants. The board issued restrictions limiting Chinese habitation on International Settlement territory and oversaw the construction of public services, including trams, a sewage system, highways, and port buildings. The International Settlement expanded several times in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition, they constructed and administered Extra-Settlement Roads into the surrounding country, which further allowed for informal expansion. It became an enclave of peace and prosperity when the Japanese invaded Shanghai in 1937 but this abruptly came to an end with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and subsequent invasion of the International Settlement in 1941. After the war the International Settlement lands were returned to Chinese sovereignty.

Shanghai French Concession - 上海法租界

On April 6, 1849, Lin Kouei (麟桂), the Chinese governor of Shanghai, granted French Consul Charles de Montigny (1805 - 1868) a proclamation ceding extraterritoriality to France in order to establish a trading colony. The Concession initially occupied a narrow collar of land around the northern end of the Chinese City, south of the British settlement, an area of 66 hectares. It was subsequently expended several times. A further small strip of riverside land to the east of the Chinese City was added in 1861, to allow for the Quai de France, docks servicing shipping between China and France. Between 1899 and 1900 the French Concession further expanded, nearly doubling in size with new territory extending west of the original grant. It expanded again in 1914, reaching as far west as modern Huashan Lu (Avneue Haig). By the 1920s, the western part of the French Concession had become the most desirable residential area of Shanghai, popular both with foreign nationals and wealthy Chinese. The concession was mistakenly bombed during the chaotic 1937 Battle of Shanghai, fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). In 1943, the French Concession was handed over to the Japanese puppet Wang Jingwei Regime by Vichy France. The turnover was officially ratified after the war by the Sino-French Accord of February 1946, signed by the French Ambassador and Chiang Kai-shek. Today the French Concession, with its tree lined boulevards and French colonial architecture, remains Shanghai's most desirable neighborhood.

The Bund

The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The name is derived from the old German term, 'bund,' meaning simply embankment or causeway. Many Asian colonial cities supported a Bund, but none became more famous or iconic than the Shanghai Bund. The area centers on the section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent area. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai and a designated historic zone.

Lining the Huangpu River, the Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings that once housed important banks and trading housing from the United Kingdom, France, United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old walled city of Shanghai and was initially a British settlement. A building boom at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century led to the Bund becoming the major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbor.

Publication History and Census

Variations of the is map were published in multiple editions until about 1949. The map was compiled by the Chinese geographer Su Jiarong (Soo Chia-yung, 蘇甲榮), and as such is one of the few Chinese-published maps of Shanghai to emerge from the concession period. Su Jiarong was a prominent Chinese book and map publisher in Shanghai whose anti-Japanese publications were aggressively collected and destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai (1937 - 1945). All of his maps are consequently extremely rare today.