Wusong

Wusong
Traditional Chinese	吳淞
Simplified Chinese	吴淞
Postal	Woosung
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Wúsōng
Wade–Giles	Wu-sung

Wusong
吴淞区
Wusong; 吴淞区
	Subdistrict of China
	1980–1988
	; Location of Wusong on Shanghai.
History
• Established	1980
• Disestablished	1988
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Yangpu District
Baoshan District, Shanghai
Today part of	Part of the Baoshan District, Shanghai

Wusong, formerly romanized as Woosung,[n 1] 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.

Name

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. The location where the Huangpu and Wusong meet was generally known as Wusongkou ("mouth of the Wusong").

History

Wusong housed a Qing fortress protecting the entrance to Shanghai.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1] Tongji University was founded here in 1909.

The Battle of Shanghai represented the outbreak of World War II in Asia,[2] 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 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.[3][4][5] Wusong was later the site of an internment camp for marines captured on Wake Island after the attack on Pearl Harbor over four years later.

Wusong became a district of Shanghai, before it was abolished in 1988 and incorporated into Baoshan District.[6]

Notes

Variant spellings include Woo-Sung.[1]

References

Citations

Sladen (1895), p. 278.
"Shanghai 1937 – Where World War II Began". SHANGHAI 1937: WHERE WORLD WAR II BEGAN. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
Chen, C. Peter. "Wong Sun-sui a.k.a. John Huang Xinrui". WW2DB. Retrieved 2020-11-12. Huang Xinrui flying in his Boeing P-26 Model 281 scored a kill over a Nakajima A4N during the Wusongkou counterattack; near Chongming Island.
Republic of China Air Force, Taiwan, ROC. "Martyr Qin Jia-zhu". air.mnd.gov.tw. Retrieved 2020-11-12. Lt. Qin Jiazhu flying in his Boeing P-26 Model 281 was shot down and killed in the tense dogfight over Wusongkou on 23 August 1937.
Chen, C. Peter. "Capt. Liu Cuigang". WW2DB. Retrieved 2020-11-12. Capt. Liu Cuigang flying in his Curtiss Hawk III shot down an Imperial Japanese Navy A4N fighter, but the badly damaged Japanese fighter managed to return for a safe landing on Ryujo.
"上海地名志总述" (in Chinese). Office of Shanghai Chronicles. 3 August 2004. Retrieved 3 October 2019.

Sources

Sladen, Douglas (1895), "Bits of China", The Japs at Home (5th ed.), New York, NY: New Amsterdam Book Co., pp. 276–354.