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.
Tongji University was founded here in 1909. In the opinion of some historians, the
Battle of Shanghai represented the outbreak of
World War II in Asia 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. 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. ==Landmarks==