Shanghai

Shanghai matters chiefly as a point of departure and transfer, not as a city the travelers explore. Once Phileas Fogg learns that the American steamer for Yokohama actually leaves from Shanghai, he commits the storm-tossed Tankadere to that destination; the pilot-boat’s signal then brings the departing steamer back within reach and carries Fogg, Aouda, and Fix onward.

A destination discovered through the timetable

Shanghai enters the journey as a practical alternative to Nagasaki. While the party is aboard the Tankadere, the pilot explains that going to Shanghai would avoid sailing wide of the Chinese coast, and that northward currents would assist them. Fogg initially rejects both Shanghai and Nagasaki: he wants to take the American steamer at Yokohama. The pilot corrects the assumption behind that plan. The steamer calls at Yokohama and Nagasaki, but begins its voyage at Shanghai.

That distinction transforms Shanghai from an unwanted detour into the necessary departure point. The American steamer is due to leave on November 11 at seven in the evening. The party has four days, or ninety-six hours, to cover the eight hundred miles to Shanghai; with favorable luck, a southwest wind, and calm seas, the pilot believes the distance can be made. He says the Tankadere could get underway within an hour, as soon as provisions are aboard and the sails are set. The itinerary is therefore measured not by time available in the city, but by the narrow interval before a ship leaves it.

The storm and Fogg’s decision

The Tankadere continues north through a typhoon. As the wind shifts and the boat rolls in the trough of the waves, pilot John Bunsby considers making for a port along the coast. Fogg agrees that they should seek one, but names only Shanghai. His answer gives the location a particular force in the scene: it is not a general refuge from the storm but the destination that still preserves the possibility of catching the steamer.

The approach makes the timetable increasingly precarious. At dawn the party sees the coast, still nearly one hundred miles from Shanghai, with only a day before the American steamer is due. By noon the Tankadere is forty-five miles away, and the remaining six hours require an average speed of nine miles an hour as the wind slackens. The light boat’s sails catch the fickle breeze, and the currents help carry it onward. At six in the evening it is within ten miles of the mouth of the Shanghai River.

The city lies at least twelve miles upriver, so reaching the river mouth does not mean the party is already in Shanghai. At seven they are still three miles from the city, while the American steamer appears, its smoke-marked funnel visible on the water as it leaves at the appointed time. The two distances sharpen the crisis: the travelers have almost completed the passage, but their intended connection is already departing.

The river-mouth transfer

The Tankadere signals the American steamer, flying its flag at half-mast. The steamer’s captain sees the signal and steers toward the smaller craft. This response makes the transfer possible without the narrative requiring Fogg and his companions to reach the city itself. Shanghai functions here through its river approach and its scheduled ship connection; the crucial encounter occurs between vessels at the edge of the port.

Fogg pays John Bunsby the agreed passage price and gives him an additional five hundred and fifty pounds. He then boards the American steamer with Aouda and Fix, and they depart for Nagasaki and Yokohama. The party reaches its destination on the morning of November 14, and Fogg promptly goes aboard the Carnatic. Shanghai thus marks a change of vessel and route rather than a stay: the Tankadere has carried the travelers through the storm to the departing ship, and the voyage across the Pacific can proceed.

A port defined by movement

The narrative gives Shanghai precise logistical contours: it is eight hundred miles away when discussed as a target, reached by a river whose mouth lies some distance below the city, and the starting point of a steamer that also calls at Yokohama and Nagasaki. These details make the port legible through distance, current, sailing time, and connection. The account does not develop a comparable description of Shanghai’s streets or inhabitants; its immediate significance lies in whether the travelers can arrive before the American steamer is gone.

That narrow role makes the location central to the journey’s rhythm. The schedule first appears to rule out the direct plan Fogg has imagined; the storm then threatens the alternative route; finally, the steamer’s captain’s response to the signal rescues the connection at the last moment. Shanghai is both the cause of urgency and the hinge that allows the party to continue eastward. Its importance is measured less by time spent ashore than by the voyage that becomes possible when the Tankadere reaches its waters.