At 1:00 AM Thursday, two buildings located at the site of the 142-year-old?Shiliupu Dock in Shanghai were demolished in a 50-second controlled explosion. With the leveling of the Shenke Restaurant and the Passenger Terminal Building, the last vestiges of the historic?Shiliupu Dock disappeared from the original site.

Originally known as the Jinliyuan Dock, the old structure was built by the Meiqichang Company in 1862. In its heyday, more than 40,000 people traversed the dock daily -- over 6.7 million a year -- as they arrived in or departed Shanghai. It was the largest passenger transport dock in China.

But in recent years, with the rapid development of road and air transport, passenger flow at the?Shiliupu Dock has dropped dramatically.

In accordance with the overall development plans for the banks of the Huangpu River, last September the?Shiliupu Dock was moved to the Wusong Passenger Transport Center at Shanghai Port, at the juncture of the Huangpu and Yangtze rivers.

The demolition of the buildings at the old dock site began last month.

This morning's explosion was successful, with no damage to the nearby flood prevention wall or Bank of Shanghai building, said Tan Ling, a senior engineer with the Nanjing Engineer College, which was in charge of the explosion.

An upscale aquatic tourism center, scheduled to be completed in three years, will be constructed at the site.

(China.org.cn by Yuan Fang, December 2, 2004)