MANY famous cities are divided into two parts by a river running through them. The best example is Budapest with Buda and Pest on either side of the Danube.

　　In Shanghai, the Huangpu River separates the city into Puxi (west of the river) and Pudong (east of the river). However, Pudong had long been ignored and it wasn't until the 1990s that a campaign was initiated to develop the district.

　　As far as most locals who lived in Shanghai a century ago were concerned, Pudong was restricted just to Lujiazui.

　　Ferry boats were the only means of transportation across the river and a row of houses was built where passengers arrived at the dock.

　　The scene from the dock reminded foreign visitors of a vivid description they had read in a novel by Charles Dickens. Among the thick beds of reeds along the river bank could be seen the wrecks of ships and other debris.

　　A lighthouse stood not far from the dock with a keeper living inside. Although more and more ships and boats were coming to anchor in the Huangpu, two old signal guns were still in use to manage the shipping so that boats could enter and leave the port in good order. Behind the tower was a fort with cannons.

　　Dominating the area was a textile factory and visitors could observe the most interesting scenes at the factory's gate as one shift of workers finished and a new shift began.

　　Five seconds after a sharp blast of a whistle was heard at 6:00am, the noise of the textile machines would die away. Women workers at the end of their 12-hour shift began to file out through the gates in four long queues in a seemingly endless stream.

　　Then, workers for the day shift would arrive and begin to flow into the workshops. After a rest of 12 hours, many of them looked fresh and the younger workers, some of them teenagers, would enter running and shouting. The Indian gatekeepers would follow the young workers and scold them.

　　More factories were erected in Lujiazui and it started to become a small town with fine and wide pebble-made roads. Also, stores appeared and residents could easily buy their daily necessities.

　　In Pudong, the roads were patrolled by baton-carrying Indian Sikh policeman.

　　A graveyard was located not far away from the river bank. Most of the 2,000 dead buried there were British sailors but there were no stone inscriptions, only a sign post to remind people who the dead were.

　　Next to the graveyard was the Xiangsheng Shipyard, one of the major shipyards in old Shanghai.

　　By Jeffery Wu

　　(The author is an expert with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)