3T2 



SHANKLIN 



SHANS 



approach. The city lies low, and gaffers greatly 

 from dysentery, cholera, and fevers during the very 

 hot summers. Here is the court of appeal for all 

 the foreign consular courts of China and Japan. 

 Shanghai has an enormous trade in tea and silks, 

 and in cottons, woollens, opium, and metals, be- 

 sides innumerable other commodities. It tat>s the 

 provinces of middle China by a vast and complicated 

 system of interlacing canals, and so gets the lion's 

 snare of the tea ami silk to export. The total trade 

 of the port, excluding the junk trade (of which no 

 customs returns are made), has grown enormously 

 since Shanghai was thrown open to foreign coin. 

 merce in 1842 ; in 1890 and the years immediately 

 preceding it the gross trade of the port was valued 

 at an average of 37,853,000 annually, or a little 

 more than the trade of Hull, the third port of Eng- 

 land. Hong-kong with a trade worth 41,000,000 

 annually is the only port in China that surpasses 

 Shanghai. A large proportion (22,715,000) of the 

 grand total of the trade of Shanghai is for gixxls 

 (foreign and native) that are re-exported abroad 

 and to other Chinese ports Le. for goods in transit. 

 Native produce from the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Shanghai is exported to the annual value of 

 8,746,000 ; this is of course in addition to the 

 foreign and native re exports. The actual imports 

 reach a total of 22,036,000 ( 1897) for purely foreign 

 goods (including goods from Hong-kong), and 

 12,293,000 for native Chinese produce. The share 

 of (Jreat Britain in the total trade (nearly two- 

 thirds for imports) amounts to 8,180,000 a year; 

 next comes the trade with Hong-kong (four-fifths 

 for exports), with India (nearly all For exports), 

 with Japan (two-thirds exports), and with the 

 United States (2,393,600, five-eighths imports). 

 Silk and silk goods are exported to the value of 

 7,690,000, and tea to 2,686,000 ; next come raw 

 cotton (1,523,000), rice, sugar, paper, straw-braid, 

 medicines, tobacco, skins and hides, native cloth, 

 hemp, wool, wheat, oils, flower and fruit Reeds, 

 fans, and a host of minor articles. Indian tea is 

 gradually supplanting China tea in the markets of 

 the world, and the Chinese planters are begin- 

 ning to grow cotton instead of tea. The imports 

 of greatest value from foreign countries (includ- 

 ing Hong kong) are cotton goods of all kinds 

 (9,948,000), opium (3,249,000; this item is 

 steadily declining), metals, woollens, coal, kerosene 

 oil, bcche de mer, edible birds'-nests, dyes, ginseng, 

 matches, pepper, sandaKvood, seaweed, timber, 

 shark's fins, &c. The port is entered annually 

 by some 2900 vessels of 2,700,000 tons burden ; of 

 these nearly one-half with more than half the ton- 

 nage are British, and only 900 of 710,000 tons are 

 Chinese. Pop. ( 1897)450,000 (aboutSOOO foreigners). 



Nlianklln, a watering-place on the south-east 

 coast of the Isle of Wight, 8 miles by rail S. of 

 Eyde. Pop. ( 1881 ) 2740 ; ( 1891 ) 3277. 



Shannon, the largest river of Ireland, rises 

 in the Cuiluagh Mountains, County Cavan, and 

 falls after a course of 254 miles into the Atlantic 

 Ocean between Loop Head and Kerry Head. Flow- 

 ing south-westwards, it soon reaches Ixxigh Allen in 

 Leitrim ; thence it proceeds through a succession 

 of expansions Loughs Boderg, Bonn, Forties, Ree, 

 and Derg past the towns of Oarrick, Athlone, and 

 Killaloe, to Limerick. There it de|>art from the 

 southerly direction it has hitherto pursued and 

 turns westwards, forming a wide estuary some 

 70 miles long and 10 miles across at its seaward 

 extremity. About 10 miles from the entrance the 

 river narrows to about 1J mile in width. Outward 

 navigation commences at Fnynes, which is con- 

 nected by railway with Limerick, and from which 

 steamlHiatH ply daily to Kilrush, Tarlwrt, and the 

 intermediate stations. Vessels of 1000 tons can, 



however, get up to Limerick, and small steamers 

 to Atlilone ; boats ascend the river to beyond 

 Lough Alli-n. Several tributaries fall into the 

 Shannon, as the Suck and Fergus from the ri^ht, 

 and the Inny, Brosna, Mulkear, Maigue, and Deel 

 l mm the left. The main river is canalised for some 

 distance below Athlone, and again between Killaloe 

 and Limerick. This important system of navi- 

 gation, which occupies a position almost midway 

 between the east and west coasts of Ireland, is 

 connected with Dublin by means of the Grand and 

 Royal Canals. 



Shanny. See BLENNY. 



Khans, a niimlier of tribes of common origin, 

 who live on the borders of Burma, Siam, and 

 China, to which three states they are in great 

 part subject, though some are independent (see 

 map at Vol. II. p. 562). They are the de- 

 scendants of an alxmginal race of China ; their 

 home generations ago was in the mountainons 

 region on the borders of the Chinese provinces 

 of Sze-chuen and Shensi. In the course of time 

 they have been pushed southwards. They seem to 

 have entered the valley of the Irawodi in the 6tb 

 century B.C. The Shans and the Laos are one and 

 the same people, and both are closely akin to the 

 Siamese. The country the Shans inhabit may be 

 broadly described as a succession of wide river- 

 valleys (of the Menam, Meping, Mekok, Mekhong, 

 &c. ) separated by high ridges; on the north it climbs 

 up to the Yunnan plateau of southern China. 

 There are extensive and valuable forests of teak ; 

 iron, rubies, and silver are extracted, and gold, 

 copper, coal, and petroleum are known to exist. 

 Rice, cotton, and tobacco are the crops most ex- 

 tensively grown. The people are noted for chased 

 work in gold and silver. The tribes that acknow- 

 ledge the supremacy of Siam are estimated to 

 number 2,000,000 people ; at the census of 1891 it 

 was computed that there were alx>ut the same 

 number under British rule in Burma. The number 

 of Shans subject to China, and the numbers of 

 the independent tribes, are alike unknown. But 

 equally whether tributary or independent, they 

 are distributed amongst several states, of which 

 the most important are Zimmc (Chieng-Mai), 

 Kiang Hsen, Lapon, Nan, Lakhon, and Peh, tribu- 

 tary to Siam ; Luang- Prabang, now French ; Kiang 

 Hung, Kiang Tung, Mone, Katchin, and others 

 now incorporated in Burma. The Shans are an 

 indolent, laughter-loving people, fond of gambling 

 and cock-lighting, not uuwarlike, though orderly 

 and fairly trustworthy ; the women have great 

 influence, and enjoy equal freedom with the men. 

 Slavery, however, exists, but in a mild form ; and 

 serfdom is general. The rule of the native chiefs 

 is generally just and mild, and taxation is light. 

 Buddhism is the dominant religion, though it 

 is mingled with many superstitious practices. 

 /mime and others of the principal towns are 

 the seats of a very extensive transit trade be- 

 tween Yunnan, Tali, and the marts of southern 

 China, on the one side, and Bangkok ani the 

 ports of Burma on the other ; the traders, mostly 

 Chinamen, living down from Yunnan silks, iron 

 and copper utensils, opium, straw-hats, lieeswax, 

 limned cloth, tea, and walnuts, and take back 

 cotton, raw and woven, and European manufac- 

 tured goods. There is also a large trade in the 

 native commodities horns and hides, ivory, cutch, 

 gold-leaf, saltpetre, sapan wood, salt, lead, steel, 

 betel-nuts, stick-lac, &c. Since 1881 Messrs Hallett 

 and Colquhoun have l>een advocating the construc- 

 tion of a railway from Bangkok to Kiang Hsen, 

 on the northern frontier of Siam, ami thence to 

 Ssumao on the Chinese border, with a branch-line 

 of 100 miles from Maulmain in Burma. Other 



