A154
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 4957 inches, about 15 in winter and 30.2 in summer. The mean degree of humidity is from 786 in the winter to 82.6 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 brouglit 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 IN 1937
The improvement in the general trade of Shanghai during the latter months of 1936 and the very satisfactory results of the first seven months of 1937 not unnaturally encouraged the belief that the depression years were passing and that the port was headed towards a new prosperity. That disillusionment should so soon have come in the shape of hostilities locally between China and Japan was hardly to be expected, and, although actual warfare in the Shanghai area lasted only three months from the 13th August, the fighting was of so severe a nature and destruction so great that the losses incurred have yet to be calculated. As a consequence of the destruction of factories, silk filatures, manufacturing plants of all descriptions, godowns, etc., and, in fact, the practical laying waste of the surrounding areas of Greater Shanghai, Chapei, Nantao, and Pootung, Shanghai for a time suffered almost complete paralysis, while conditions were accentuated by the thousands of unemployed and the mass influx of refugees. Owing, moreover, to the imminent danger to foreign shipping which caused the diversion from Shanghai of the vessels of certain of the principal steamship companies, the boom in the Whangpoo River itself, the closure of the Yangtze River, the Japanese blockade of the China coast, and the incessant bombing of roads and railways, Shanghai was for some weeks virtually isolated from the rest of the world. With the consequent dislocation of all business, the imposition of necessary financial restrictions, and conditions generally throughout the last five months of the year, it is a mattter of no little surprise that the value of the trade of the port should be so little below that for the previous year, and this can only be attributed to the unprecedented prosperity of the first seven months of 1937.
ī
During the year under review Shanghai handled $1,786.5 million worth of cargo as compared with $1,816.2 million worth during 1936, the value statistics of the port under their various headings being as follows: direct foreign imports,