A rare survival from pre-war Shanghai, bearing testament to the bustle of this city which became known as 'The Paris of the East, the New York of the West'.

With valuable information on the many firms then operating out of the city, a Hong's Who's Who of notable businessmen, a large folding map of Shanghai, and a list of residential addresses, including for a Mr and Mrs J. Ballard of 100 Amherst Avenue.

Published just one year prior to the Japanese invasion by The Mercury Press, a subsidiary of the English language newspaper, The Shanghai Evening Post, which represented the views of the American business community in the city. The Directory offers a rare snapshot into the life of a city that would soon come to rest with the collapse of the international concessions where foreign residents like the Ballards lived.

We can trace only one institutional copy at the New York Public Library.

January 1936 edition; 8vo (23 x 16 cm); folding map tipped to title, ads. to pastedowns and last f. of text, old publisher's label to rear pastedown, printed alphabetical and thematic index tabs cut in, occasional tears with loss to tabs, maps with repairs and small tears along fold and to top margin with loss of letter H of axis, a little spotting to endpapers; publisher's yellow cloth, spine lettered in black, orange paper title panels pasted to each board in red, silver and black, extremities slightly rubbed, otherwise a very good example; 1000pp.