Wusong, formerly romanized as Woosung, is a

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...

of Baoshan in northern

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

. Prior to the city's expansion, it was a separate port town located down the

Huangpu River The Huangpu (), formerly romanized as Whangpoo, is a river flowing north through Shanghai. The Bund and Lujiazui are located along the Huangpu River. The Huangpu is the biggest river in central Shanghai, with the Suzhou Creek being its maj ...

from Shanghai's urban core.

Name

Wusong is named for the Wusong River, a former name for Shanghai's

Suzhou Creek Suzhou Creek (or Soochow Creek), also called the Wusong (Woosung) River, is a river that passes through the Shanghai city center. It is named after the neighboring city of Suzhou (Soochow), Jiangsu, the predominant settlement in this area pri ...

. Suzhou Creek is now a tributary to the

, emptying into it in Puxi across from

Lujiazui Lujiazui, also known under its Shanghainese name Lohkatse (, , lit. meaning " he Lu family's mouth"), is a locality in Shanghai, a peninsula formed by a bend in the Huangpu River. Since the early 1990s, Lujiazui has been developed specifically ...

and just north of the Bund. The Huangpu had previously been a tributary to the Wusong, but the two reversed their importance when a flood caused it to gain a number of the Wusong's former tributaries. The location where the Huangpu and Wusong meet was generally known as ''Wusongkou'' ("mouth of the Wusong").

History

Wusong housed a

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

fortress protecting the entrance to Shanghai. It was captured by the British during the

Battle of Woosung The Battle of Wusong (Woosung) () was fought between British and Chinese forces at the entrance of the Wusong River (present-day Huangpu River), Jiangsu province, China, on June 16th, 1842 during the First Opium War. The British capture of the t ...

on 16 June 1842, amid the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

. During the steamship era, it was the point of departure for large steamers bound for Shanghai. This position caused it to be the site of China's first telegraph wires and first railroad, both running to Shanghai along what is today the route of the

Shanghai Metro The Shanghai Metro (; Shanghainese: ''Zaon6he5 Di6thiq7'') is a rapid transit system in Shanghai, operating urban and suburban transit services to 14 of its 16 municipal districts and to Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. Served as a part of Shang ...

's elevated Line 3. By 1900, it boasted a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

and a "skeleton"

teahouse A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whi ...

, as well as a small squadron of war-

junks A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

(''ty-mung'') of the

Imperial Chinese Navy The Imperial Chinese Navy was the modern navy of the Qing dynasty of China established in 1875. An Imperial naval force in China first came into existence from 1132 during the Song dynasty and existed in some form until the end of the Qing dynasty ...

. Tongji University was founded here in 1909. The

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of the ...

represented the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in Asia, and Wusongkou was the scene of an all-out land, sea and air battle, as Imperial Japanese Marines landed here on 23 August 1937, and were attacked by

Chinese Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

Hawk III fighter-attack planes escorted by P-26/281 Peashooters; the intense dogfight between the Chinese fighters and IJN fighters from aircraft carriers '' Hōshō'' and '' Ryūjō'' resulted in several Chinese fighters shot down, while the Japanese lost two A4N fighters, each claimed by Capt. Liu Cuigang and Lt.

John Huang John Huang (, born 1945) is a major figure in the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy. He worked for Lippo Bank in California and Worthen Bank in Arkansas, and as deputy assistant secretary for international economic affairs in U.S. ...

, although Capt. Liu's victim managed to nurse his crippled A4N back to ''Ryūjō''. Wusong was later the site of an internment camp for marines captured on

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

over four years later. Wusong became a district of Shanghai, before it was abolished in 1988 and incorporated into Baoshan District.

Landmarks

The Wusung Radio Tower is a 321 metres tall guyed mast situated at Wusong near

. The Wusung Radio Mast was built in the 1930s and was at the time of inauguration the world's second-tallest architectural structure after the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...

.*Book: "Ein Riese unter Riesen" ( Page 33), Aufstieg und Fall des Deutschlandsenders III in Herzberg/Elster, Helmut Knuppe, Leipziger Verlagsgesellschaft,

Name

History

Landmarks

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

See also