LESS than 2 kilometers long, Tanggu Road is filled with old houses, local residents on bikes and small shops selling goods from snacks to screwdrivers, making it hard to connect the area in Hongkou District with expatriates, who are usually associated with the Bund or the former French concession area.

In the mid-19th century, Tanggu Road was called Boone Road, named after William Jones Boone (1811-74), the first American missionary bishop in Shanghai and also among the first Americans to arrive in the city after it opened port to foreign trade in 1843.

Boone moved to Hongkou District in 1848, soon after he landed, and later renovated a decrepit old house on Broadway Road (today’s Dongdaming Road) for his missionary activities, which were mainly based on the north bank of Suzhou Creek.

“Though American missionaries came later than British and French ones, they have made significant contributions to Shanghai just the same as missionaries from other countries,” says Gao Xi, a history professor at Fudan University.

“Missionaries came to China not only to baptize, but also brought with them modern Western ideas including charity, science and education. Western hospitals like St Luke’s helped China to adopt the modern medical system from the West and change the idea of doctors and medicine,” she says.

Boone and other American missionaries also helped build schools and clinics around the same time, including the St Luke’s Hospital that was originally established just next to Boone’s church. It was relocated and is still up and running today.

The churches, schools and hospitals also attracted the early Americans to live and invest in this area. Trade between China and America rose from US$6 million in 1843 to US$23 million in 1860.

“In early times, when there were limited public entertainment facilities, churches also served as social networking platforms to some extent,” Gao Jun, associate professor at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, tells Shanghai Daily. “Because the church renovated by Boone and other missionaries was one of the best-facilitated ones in the city, the area also became the favorite spot for Americans who came to the city.”

According to many early records, Boone was even more respected and considered more influential than the American consul general, and was a major force behind the establishment of the American settlement, in Hongkou District.

“While British and French concessions all went pretty smoothly, Americans confronted many difficulties when they first came,” Gao Jun explains. “When they first came, they were welcomed from neither other foreign consuls nor local Shanghai officials. They had asked for the same policies as the British from the local municipal head since 1849, but it was not until 1852 when the local head official finally compromised.”

Before that, the American consul general’s office was in the former British concession, and Americans needed permission from the British consul, rather than American consul, if they wanted to rent land.

Not long after the settlement was settled, attacks from the Small Swords Society and Taiping Rebellion expanded to the foreign settlements. The British community took the lead in forming the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, composed of mainly British people and also other expatriates, to fight against the rebellions.

At this time the American and British concessions merged into the Foreign Settlement North of Yang-King-Pang Creek, commonly known as the international settlement, in 1863. Britons were the majority in the settlement, and were mainly in charge of the administration of the area.

Old records show that in 1870, about 1,000 British and 300 Americans lived in Shanghai, while in 1865, among 88 foreign firms in the city, 58 were British and six were American.

“After the two settlements merged, Americans had long played a follower of British, and they didn’t feel weird about it,” says Gao Jun. “Unlike the French and British, who were more self-aware of their nationalities and traditions, Americans were more laid back. They either went with British to their churches and clubs or hung out with French people and they fit in at either place.”

It all changed in 1905, when China and the US reached an agreement regarding Chinese workers in the US. This triggered a grand movement against American products all across the country, starting from Shanghai.

According to Gao Jun, World War I pushed this even more forward, as British in Shanghai started excluding and criticizing Americans in the city because the US stayed out of the war.

“Many foreign countries, including Britain, were affected by the first World War while America was on the rise. Americans also became more patriotic and proud of their nationality,” Gao says.

“They started building their own schools, social clubs, country clubs, and churches. Many American companies, including Citibank, GE, DuPontand Ford, also came to the city around this time, making the community ever larger and stronger.”

In 1901, the number of foreign firms rose to 432, among which less than half were British, a much smaller rate than before, and 55 were American. Many local companies that were established by other Westerners were also acquired by large American groups, such as the local electric company and telephone company.

In 1912, Shanghai American School was founded and soon became the top choice for American families in the city. It later expanded its recruitment to nearby provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian.

In 1915, the American Chamber of Commerce was founded. In 1917, the Shanghai American Club was established and became the major social club for Americans, together with the Columbia Country Club and the Shanghai American Women’s Club.

In 1925, Shanghai Community Church, or today’s Hengshan Church, just opposite to Shanghai American School, was also finished. Americans no longer needed to follow Britons around, and their schools, clubs and churches soon expanded hospitality to other internationals.

During that period, the number of Americans in the city rose from fewer than 1,000 in 1910 to more than 4,000 in 1925. In 1942, when Japanese troops entered the settlement, there were still more than 1,300 Americans left in the city, half of whom spent their lives in concentration camps in the city for the next two and half years.

In 1945, more than 4,000 Americans came back to the city to rebuild their community, and there were still 236 Americans in the city in 1950, before the consul general’s office closed on April 28. The office was re-opened 30 years later.

“Since the consul general’s office was reopened in 1980, increasingly more Americans have come to witness the rapid development of the city. While American products including Hollywood movies, KFC, NBA and Disneyland become increasingly more popular in Shanghai, new subjects of mixed cultures like the New York University’s Shanghai campus have also emerged,” Gao concludes.