Magnificent folding wall map charting the latest improvements and developments on the Whangpoo (Huangpu) River in 1922.

The Huangpu River is the major waterway flowing through Shanghai. Due to its importance as a treaty port, in the Protocol of Peking signed in 1901, China and western powers agreed to establish the Whangpoo Conservancy Board. This was a joint institution with participation from the Chinese government in the form of the Shanghai Customs Taotai and the Commissioner of Shanghai Customs from the western enclaves.

The task of the Board was to improve, facilitate and strengthen the flow and banks of the River and its tributaries, hence improving the commercial infrastructure of Shanghai and its surrounding settlements. The Board produced multiple maps of the Port of Shanghai, the River, its tributaries and detailed the stages and advances of improvements. It was established in 1905 and abolished in 1948. Its achievements were extraordinary and contributed much to the commercial power house that Shanghai is today.

The surveyor mentioned on this map, Y. Utne is recorded as employed by the Board as early as 1909, when he was named as an “assistant surveyor”. By 1936, he is listed as a passenger to England when Shanghai had been invaded by the Japanese. On the manifest, he is described as “Chief Surveyor of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board”.

This example of his work is a magnificent rendering of the latest developments and course of the whole of the Huangpu River, its tributaries and their courses. The map is bi-lingual with English and Mandarin names. Due to it scale, the plan of Shanghai on the map is a schematic although the cartouche states that the depiction of the settlements are taken from municipal plans of the city.

Original colour. [SEAS5370]