738
SHANGHAI
Oceurred in winter, and 69 in summer; the annual rainfall averages 49'57 inches, about 15 in winter and 30′2 in summer. The mean degree of humidity is from 78'6 in the winter to 82'6 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, erossing 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. In spite of this, however, and the more stringent regulations, the traffie problem is becoming increasingly acute. Its intensity may be judged from the 40 per cent. increase over 1919 of the motor vehiele licences issued, and from the fact that in the International Settlement alone the trams earried 111 million
million passengers.
Under the new Regulations power to compel the sale of land required for publie purposes has been secured. Notwith- standing the soft nature of the soil the roads are kept in remarkably good order, despite the heavy motor traffic. With the introduction of trams the whole track of the Maloo, one mile in length, was laid with Jarrah hardwood blocks, and the section of Nanking Road between Kiangse Road and the Bund was paved with the same material. The Municipal Council lease a stone quarry at Pingehiao, in Chekiang, about 150 miles south-west of Shanghai, froin which they obtain large quantities of stone. 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 nine bridges, seven of which are adapted for earriage traffic. The scheme for filling in the Yang-king-pang was passed by the land-renters in 1914, the area thus gained being 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, 1916, and the Avenue Edward VII., as the new thoroughfare is named, was finished in the same year. The Bund Bridge, which was carefully removed for re-erection elsewhere, and the levelling of the road surface at this point saw the com- pletion of the work, and the International Settlement trams now run the full length of the French and International Bunds. The whole work of turning what was a foul- smelling ereek into what promises to be one of the finest boulevards in the Far East, was one of the biggest single jobs undertaken by the local Public Works Department. Avenue Edward VII., from The Bund to Thibet Road, is a thoroughfare of eonsider- able width, with spacious foot paths. All the roads leading off the new avenue on both sides, have rounded corners with a wide sweep, and the engineers, in planning the road, have made every arrangement possible for the accommodation of extensive traffic. In the straightening of the road the windings of the former ereek are abolished. It may be mentioned that there is no tram line on Avenue Edward VII, the French tram company having removed the loop section which ran from the French Bund along the old Quai de Yang-king-pang and through Rue Montauban to Rue du Consulat. Instead, a double line is 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 50 bridges within the Settlements, the number having been considerably reduced owing to the demolition of the bridges the Yang-king-pang and the Defence Creek. 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 6) feet with a carriage-way of 36 feet 9 inches; the gradient of the ap- proaches is in 30; the headway above high-water from 6′ 6′′ to 11".
There are several good driving roads extending into the country, two leading to Sieawei, 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 and now called the Rubicon. Another broad thoroughfare, Yang- tzepoo Road, formerly ran by the side of the river for five miles. It has recently been extended to Woosung, the official opening of the extension, which is 30 feet wide, taking place in May, 1919. The termini of Jessfield Road and Yangtzepoo Road now mark the limits in their separate directions of the Foreign Settlements. The land for a new road from Sicawei to Jessfield was acquired in 1905. Several other roads have been proposed, but although foreigners are prepared to pay high prices for the land the
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