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 Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. 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 ma ...

from Shanghai's urban core.

Name

Wusong is named for the Wusong River, a former name for Shanghai's Suzhou Creek. Suzhou Creek is now a tributary to the

, emptying into it in Puxi across from Lujiazui 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 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's elevated Line 3. By 1900, it boasted a lighthouse and a "skeleton" teahouse, as well as a small squadron of war- junks (''ty-mung'') of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Tongji University Tongji University () is a comprehensive public research university located in Shanghai. Established in 1907 by the German government together with German physicians in Shanghai, Tongji is one of the longest-standing, most selective, and most pr ...

was founded here in 1909. The Battle of Shanghai 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

Hawk III The Curtiss BF2C Goshawk (Model 67) was a United States 1930s naval biplane aircraft that saw limited success and was part of a long line of Hawk Series airplanes made by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the American military, and f ...

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, 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 Sida fallax, 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, sou ...

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 Hawa ...

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 A guyed mast or guyed tower is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not h ...

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