792
SHANGHAI
to 30:35 inches in the first quarter. The annual average of rainy days in Shanghar during eight years was 124; 55 wet days occurred in winter, and 69 in summer; the annual rainfall averages 42:41 inches, about 135 in winter and 29 in summer; the heaviest shower was on the 24th October, 1875, when 7 inches fell in 3 hours. The mean degree of humidity is from 76 in the winter to 84 in the summer months.
DESCRIPTION
The streets of the British and French Settlements all run north and south and east and west, mostly for the whole length of both, crossing each other at right angles. They were when first laid out twenty-two feet wide, but have since at very great expense been mostly made much wider. Under the new Regulations power to compel the sale of land required for public purposes has been secured. Notwith- standing the soft nature of the soil the roads are kept in remarkably good order, at least the main thoroughfares. In consequence of the introduction of trams the whole track of the Maloo, one mile in length, has been laid with Jarrah hardwood blocks, and the section of Nanking Road, between Kiangse Road and the Bund has been so paved in its entire width. The Municipal Council now leases a stone quarry at Pingchiao, in Chekiang, about 150 miles south-west of Shanghai, from which they obtained about 59,000 tons of sound stone, and about 8,800 tons of inferior stone in 1913. Owing to the nature of the ground, expensive piling or concrete foundations are necessary before any building over one storey in height can be erected, and all stone has to be brought from a long distance. The Soochow Creek, between the British Settlement and Hongkew, is now crossed by seven bridges, six of which are adapted for carriage traffic, and the French concession is connected with the other Settlement by eight bridges crossing the Yang-king-pang. The scheme for filling in the Yang-king-pang was passed by the land renters in 1914, the area thus gained to be converted into a fine boulevard. The first tube of the Yang-king-pang culvert to be put under the Bund Bridge was laid in March this year (1916), and the time is now measurably near when the Avenue Edward VII. (which will be the name of the new thoroughfare from The Bund to Manila Road) will be completed The laying of the two culverts under The Bund Bridge, which was started at the same time by the Public Works- Departments of the two Municipal Councils, also means the final disappearance of the Yang-king-pang. The whole work of turning what was a foul-smelling creek into what will be one of the finest boulevards in the Far East, is one of the biggest single jobs undertaken by the local Public Works Department. Avenue Edward VII., from The Bund to Thibet Road, will be a thoroughfare 100 ft. wide. On either side there will be an 18 ft. footpath, while the carriage-way will be 74 ft. All the roads leading off the new avenue, on both sides, will have rounded corners with a wide sweep, and the engi- neers, in planning the road, have made every arrangement possible for the accommoda- tion of extensive traffic. In the straightening of the road the windings of the former creek are abolished. It may be mentioned that there will be no tram line on Avenue Edward VII, the French tram company having decided to remove the loop section which now runs from the French Bund along the old Quai de Yang-king-pang and through Rue Montauban to Rue du Consulat. Instead, a double line will be run from. the Rue du Montauban corner down Rue du Consulat to The Bund. A new delimita- tion of the French Settlement was also undertaken during 1914, and the French author- ities were given full control of the roads that have been built beyond the old boundary. Six new bridges were erected in 1901 to connect the extended Settlements. There are 59 bridges within the Settlements. A new steel bridge over the mouth of the Soochow Creek was completed in 1908, replacing the wooden Garden Bridge" erected in 1873. It has two equal spans of 171' 2", the width is 60 feet with a carriage-way of 36 feet 9 inches; the gradient of the approaches is 1 in 30; the headway above high-water from 6' 6" to 11". It has been proposed to culvert and fill in the Creek between the General and French Settlements and to make a broad thoroughfare along its line, but the scheme is in abeyance. There are several good driving roads extending into the country, two leading to Sicawei, a distance of about six miles, and one to Jessfield by the banks of the Soochow Creek, for five miles, with an extension measuring some thirteen miles to the extreme limits of the Shanghai hsein district. A scheme for the construction of a road from Sicawei to the hills, eighteen miles, has been sanctioned, and marked out, but owing to official obstruction it has not yet been commenced. Another broad thoroughfare, Yangtzepoo Road, runs by the side of the river for five miles, which it is intended ultimately to extend to Woosung. The termini of Jessfield Road and Yangtzepoo Road now mark the