A160
SHANGHAI
more frequent. On 27th and 28th July, 1915, a typhoon of extraordinary violence visited the district doing much damage. The mean of the barometer is from 29.769 in the third to 30 245 inches in the first quarter. The annual average of rainy days in Shanghai during eight years was 124; 55 wet days occurred in winter, and 69 in summer; the annual rainfall averages 49'57 inches, about 15 in winter and 302 in summer. The mean degree of humidity is from 786 in the winter to 826 in the summer months.
DESCRIPTION
The streets of the International and French Settlements 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. In spite of this, however, and the more stringent regulations, the traffic problem is becoming increasingly acute in Shanghai as elsewhere. Notwithstanding 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 hard- wood blocks, and the section of Nanking Road between Kiangse Road and the Bund was paved with the same material. 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 carriage traffic.
Many foreign houses, surrounded by gardens, have been erected near the outside roads, especially on the Bubbling Well, Avenue Haig, Yuyuen, Great Western and Sinza Roads, which are the main outlets from the Settlement, and from which most of the other roads branch off. These roads are planted with trees on both sides, forming fine avenues of five to six miles in length. Building activity of late years may be described as remarkable and unparalleled in the history of the port.
Mention should be made of the many 10 and even 20 storied apartment houses in the central as well as western districts. Foreigners for the most part have migrated to these. These are now too numerous to enumerate off-hand.
TRADE FOR 1933
The value of the trade of Shanghai in so far as it is now recorded by the Customs was as follows: direct foreign imports, 736.2 million dollars as against 795.2 million in 1932; direct exports of Chinese produce to foreign. countries, 315.8 million dollars as against 246.7 million; coastwise imports of Chinese produce, 220.3 million dollars as against 272.3 million; and coastwise exports (including re-exports) of Chinese produce, 487.8 million dollars as against 501.3 million. From this it will be seen that the port handled the respectable sum of 1,760.1 million dollars' worth of cargo during the year under review, not including the value of the coastwise movements of foreign cargo, inwards and outwards, the particulars of which are no longer recorded, and not including the value of the coastwise movements of any class of cargo transported by junk, road, or rail. These statistics also show that the value of foreign imports declined by something over 7 per cent. as compared with the figures for the previous year; that the value of exports to foreign countries increased by almost 28 per cent.; and that the total value of the direct trade with abroad increased by 10.1 million dollars, or almost 1 per cent. To complete the statistical data here given it should be recorded that Shanghai's share of China's total foreign import trade rose from 45.48 per cent. in 1932 to 54.14 per cent. for the year under review, and that the port's share of China's total export trade with foreign countries rose from 24.86 to 51.57 per cent. In reviewing the trade of smaller ports it is usually possible to account, for yearly variations in statistics by an analysis of local conditions; but in the case of Shanghai, which, as the last-quoted figures show, now handles (chiefly in its capacity as an entreport for the country) over half of the foreign imports into China and over half of the exports from China, such a method becomes inapplicable except when a major disturbance like the "undeclared"