Wusong 吴淞区 |
|||||
District of China | |||||
|
|||||
Location of Wusong on Shanghai. | |||||
History | |||||
• | Established | 1980 | |||
• | Disestablished | 1988 | |||
Today part of | Part of the Baoshan District |
Wusong | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simplified Chinese | |||||||||
Postal | Woosung | ||||||||
|
Transcriptions | |
---|---|
Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Wúsōng |
Wade–Giles | Wu-sung |
Wusong, formerly romanized as Woosung, is a subdistrict of Baoshan in northern Shanghai. Prior to the city's expansion, it was a separate port town located 14 miles (23 km) down the Huangpu River from Shanghai's urban core.
Wusong is named for the Wusong River, a former name for Shanghai's Suzhou Creek. Suzhou Creek is now a tributary to the Huangpu River, 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.
Wusong housed a Qing 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. 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.