In the 1930s, as a transport hub and a merchandise distribution centre in Southeast China, Shantou Port's cargo throughput ranked third in the country. A brief account of a visit to the city in English during this period is the English accountant Max Relton's A Man in the East: A Journey through French Indo-China (Michael Joseph Ltd., London, 1939). On June 21, 1939, Japanese troops invaded Shantou.[9] Japanese force occupied Shantou until 1945.[10]
With higher-level administrative authority, Shantou governed Chaozhou City and Jieyang City from 1983 to 1989.[11]