Shanghai's taxi service has developed rapidly. At the end of 1998 it had 41,000 taxis. Shanghai's post and telecommunications have developed rapidly, and its public telecommunication ability has been greatly strengthened. At the end of 1998, the total telephone exchange capacity reached 6.18 million circuits, and 4.31 million households had telephones installed. Through DDD and IDD, people in Shanghai can make phone calls to all parts of the world.
Shanghai is advanced in finance.
In recent years, it has opened its financial fields wider to the outside world. In 1998, Shanghai received l .5271 million tourists from 177 countries and regions, of whom l.1755 million were foreigners. In 1990, the Party Central Committee and the State Council formally proclaimed that Pudong should be opened up and developed. In the past nine years, it has made great progress. In 1998. the GDP of the Pudong New Area was 70.885 billion yuan, or more than quadruple the 1990 figure, with an average annual growth rate of 21.3 percent.