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Although Shanghai is already the largest port in all China, as it stands it will not meet the future needs and demands of a world harbor. Therefore there is a movement at present among the foreign merchants in China to construct a world port in Shanghai. Several plans have been proposed such as to improve the existing arrangement, to build a wet dock by closing the Whangpoo, to construct a closed harbor on the right bank of the Yangtze outside of Whangpoo, and to excavate a new basin just east of Shanghai with a shipping canal to Hangchow Bay. It is estimated that a cost of over one hundred million dollars Mex. must be spent before Shanghai can be made a first-class port.
According to the four principles I set forth in Program I, Shanghai as a world port for Eastern China is not in an ideal position. The best position for a port of that kind is at a point just south of Chapu on the Hangchow Bay. This locality is far superior to Shanghai as an eastern port for China from the standpoint of our four principles as set forth in our first program. Henceforth, in our course of discussion, we shall call this the "Projected Port" so as to distinguish it from Shanghai, the existing port of Eastern China.
The Projected Port
The "Projected Port" will be on the Bay which lies between the Chapu and the Kanpu promontories, a distance of about fifteen miles. A new sea wall should be built from one promontory to the other and a gap should be left at the Chapu end, a few hundred feet from the hill as an entrance to the harbor. The sea wall should be divided into five sections of three miles each. For the present, one section of three miles in length and one and a half miles in width should be built and a harbor of three or more square miles so formed would be sufficient. With the growth of commerce one section after another could be added to meet the needs. The front sea wall should be built of stone or concrete, while the transverse wall between the sea wall and the land side should be built of sand and bush mattress as a temporary structure to be removed in case of the extension of the harbor. Once a harbor is formed there need be no trouble regarding the future conservancy work, for there is no silt-carrying water in the vicinity by which the harbor and its approaches may be silted up afterwards. The entrance of our harbor is in the deepest part of the Hangchow Bay, and from the entrance to the open sea there is an average depth of six to seven fathoms [1] at low water. The largest ocean liner could therefore come into port at any hour. Thus as a first-class seaport in Central China our Projected Port is superior to Shanghai. See Map III.