Walking to my office in Shanghai (1936)
The opportunity to walk freely is in short supply in today’s Shanghai, so here is J. H. Arnold’s letter on this subject, sent in 1936.
Julean Herbert Arnold (1875-1946) was the US Commercial Attaché in China from 1917 to 1940. His papers are in the Hoover Institution.
Intersection of Avenue Joffre and Boulevard de Montigny, in 1937. Claude Berruyer.
February 29, 1936
I walked down to my office this morning. It was a bit early, as I left the house about 7:15 and did the four miles in just an hour. Living in the French Settlement as we do, the police and traffic men on the street and French, Chinese and Annamites from French Indochina; the latter have to learn what Chinese language they know after they come here. The traffic cops are interesting in that they are so numerous, operating the traffic signals and being on nearly every corner.
You know, when one walks to his office he sees much more than if he rides. Here in Shanghai one could use many more kinds of transportation than in most places. For the laborers, especially women and girls working in the factories, the wheelbarrow with a big center wheel and seats, one on each side, is most economical. Often one sees as many as eight or ten girls on one wheelbarrow. When I go early and take a different route from a direct one down Avenue Joffre, I see many wheelbarrows, bringing the women to the factories and taking them home from the night shifts in the cotton mills. These girls work ten and twelve hours for the munificent sum of about 10 cents in American money, so you see they can’t afford much for transportation.
The ricksha is cheaper than street cars. The latter operate on zone basis and carry first, second and third class passengers. The cars have trailers for third class, costing about 1/5 of an American cent per mile, which is 1/3 the price of first class tickets. The fares are collected in copper coins, and the street car companies take in tons of these coppers every day. They carry more persons per mile than any other street cars in the world.
The motor buses are another form of transportation, but for higher class traffic. Then there are the taxis. These do not have stands on the streets, but have to be called from garages and hotels. It costs 30 US cents for any distance of up to six miles, or about 1 dollar an hour.
In addition to these there are thousand of bicycles on the streets, and thousands of cargo wheelbarrows, coolies carriers and push carts. To complicate matter still further, there are no regulations against jaywalkers, and thousands of people walk in the streets or cross any old place. Some of the streets are so narrow that there are no sidewalks.
Well, anyway, this is all made more impressive when one walks down the streets of Shanghai.
Cargo wheelbarrow on Yates Road, 1934. Carter Holton.
Continued here: Part 2