The Telegraph
"The first attempts to introduce the telegraph into Shanghai also resulted in a failure. In 1865 Mr. E. A. Reynolds undertook to establish telegraphic connection between Shanghai and Woosung, so that the people in the Settlements could be informed of the movements of the shipping at the mouth of the river.
In 1870 when a cable was laid between Shanghai and Hongkong, according to agreement, the cable at the Shanghai end was not to be landed on shore but on vessels anchored outside the limits. No part of the line went overland; and at each port where the company had an office, the telegraph service was conducted on hulks.
The line to Shanghai at first had its end moored at sea 25 miles south of Videa Island in the Chusan group, and was thence carried via Gutzlaff Island to Woosung. From Woosung a small cable came up river and was brought ashore in Hongkew. The cable at Woosung was brought ashore secretly. Afterwards, when this was discovered by the Chinese authorities, there was a protest, and it was insisted that the cable must end on a vessel anchored outside. The opposition to telegraphs yielded sooner than that to railways, and in 1878 the Chinese authorities permitted the construction of an overland line along Woosung Road, the poles being erected on foreign owned land.
The Chinese were thoroughly converted to the use of the telegraph during the trouble with Russia over the territory in Central Asia, and in 1880 and 1881 the Chinese authorities employed the Great Northern Telegraph Company (Danish) to construct a line connecting Shanghai and Peking at a cost of Tls. 140,000." - F.L. Hawks Potts