Shanghai---Travel In China

Shanghai (上海, pinyin: shàng hai; Shanghainese IPA ASCII: /zANhE/) is China's largest city and is situated on the banks of the Chang Jiang delta. In Chinese, Shanghai's abbreviations are Hù and Shen. The name Shanghai literally means "on the sea" or "onto the sea." Administratively, Shanghai is one of 4 municipalities of the People's Republic of China, which have provincial-level status.

Administration
Shanghai is divided into 18 districts and 1 county:

Districts
Baoshan
Changning
Fengxian
Hongkou
Huangpu
Jiading
Jing'an
Jinshan
Luwan
Minhang
Nanhui
Pudong
Putuo
Qingpu
Songjiang
Xuhui
Yangpu
Zhabei

County
Chongming County

As of 2002, there were 132 towns, 3 townships, 99 subdistrict committees, 3,393 neighborhood committees and 2,037 villagers' committees in Shanghai.

List of towns:

Anting, Jiading District

History
Before the forming of Shanghai city, Shanghai was called Songjiang county, a part of Suzhou city. The county was formed around 1000 years ago. From the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Shanghai gradually become a busy seaport.

A city wall was built in 1553 AD, which is generally regarded as the beginning of Shanghai City. However, before the 19th century, Shanghai was not a major city, and in contrast to other major Chinese cities, there are few ancient Chinese landmarks there.

The role of Shanghai changed radically in the 19th century, as the city's strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River made it an ideal location for trade with the West.

During the First Opium War in the early-19th Century, British forces plundered Shanghai. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which saw the treaty ports, Shanghai included, opened for international trade. The Treaty of the Bogue signed in 1843, and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia signed in 1844 together saw foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil.

The Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850, and in 1853 Shanghai was occupied by a triad offshoot of the rebels, called the Small Swords Society. The fighting destroyed the countryside but left the foreigners' settlements untouched, and Chinese arrived seeking refuge. Although previously Chinese were forbidden to live in foreign settlements, 1854 saw new regulations drawn up making land available to Chinese. Land prices rose substantially. The year also saw the first annual meeting of the Shanghai Municipal Council, substantiated in order to manage the foreign settlements. In 1863, the British and American settlements joined in order to form the International Settlement.

The Sino-Japanese War fought 1894-95 over control of Korea concluded with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which saw Japan emerge as an additional foreign power in Shanghai. Japan built the first factories in Shanghai, which were soon copied by other foreign powers to effect the emergence of Shanghai industry. During World War II, Shanghai was a centre for refugees from Europe. She was the only city in the world that was open unconditionally to the Jews at the time.

Shanghai was then the biggest financial city in the Far East. Under the Republic of China, Shanghai was made a special city in 1927, and a municipality in May 1930. Shanghai was occupied by Japan in 1937 until its surrender in 1945.

On May 27, 1949, Shanghai became under communist control and was one of the only two former ROC municipalities not immediately merged into neighbouring provinces (the other being Beijing). It then underwent a series of changes in the boundaries of its subdivisions, especially in the next decade.

After 1949, however, most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong. During the 1950s and 1960s, Shanghai became an industrial center and center for revolutionary leftism. Yet, even during the most tumultuous times of the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai was able to maintain high economic productivity and relative social stability. In most of the history of the PRC, Shanghai has been the largest contributor of tax revenue to the central government compared with other Chinese provinces and municipalities. In the early eighties, 70-80% of the entire national tax revenue came from the municipality of Shanghai alone. This came at the cost of severely crippling Shanghai's infrastructure and capital development. Its importance to China's fiscal well-being also denied it economic liberalizations that were started in the far southern provinces such as Guangdong during the mid-eighties. At that time Guangdong province paid nearly no taxes to the central government, and thus was perceived as fiscally dispendable for experimental economic reforms. Shanghai was not permitted to initiate economic reforms until 1991.

Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to positions within the PRC central government. In the 1990s, there was often described a "Shanghai clique" which included the president of the PRC Jiang Zemin and the premier of the PRC Zhu Rongji. Starting in 1992, the central government under Jiang Zemin, a former Mayor of Shanghai, began reducing the tax burden on Shanghai and encouraging both foreign and domestic investment in order to promote it as the economic hub of east Asia and to encourage its role as gateway of investment to the Chinese interior. Since then it has experienced continuous economic growth of between 9-15% annually, leading China's overall growth.

Economy
Shanghai is the financial and cultural center of China. It began economic reforms in 1992, a decade later than many of the Southern Chinese provinces. Prior to then, much of the city revenue went directly to the capital, Beijing, with little return. Even with a decreased tax burden after 1992, Shanghai's tax contribution to the central government is around 20-25% of the national total. Shanghai today is the biggest and most developed city in mainland China. As of 2003, the official registered population is 13.5 million; however, 6 million more people work and live in Shanghai undocumented, and of the 6 million, 3 million belong to the "floating population" of temporary migrant workers.

Shanghai and Hong Kong have had a recent rivalry over which city is to be the economic center of China. The city had a GDP of ¥36206 (ca. US$4370) per capita in 2003, ranked no. 13 among all 659 Chinese cities. Hong Kong has the advantage of a stronger legal system and greater banking and service expertise. Shanghai has stronger links to both the Chinese interior and the central government, in addition to a stronger base in manufacturing and technology. Since the handover of Hong Kong to the PRC, Shanghai has increased its role in finance, banking, and as a major destination for corporate headquarters, fueling demand for a highly educated and westernized workforce. Shanghai's economy is steadily growing at 11%.

Geography and Climate
Shanghai faces the East China Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean), and is bisected by the Huangpu River. Puxi contains the city proper on the western side of Huangpu river, while an entirely new financial district has been erected on the eastern bank of the Huangpu in Pudong.

Shanghai experiences all four seasons, with freezing temperatures during the winter season and a 32 degrees Celsius average high during the hottest months of July and August (reaching 40 degrees occassionally). Winter is typically grey, and summers can be quite humid. Autumn and spring in Shanghai are cool and crisp, and generally agreed as the best time to be in Shanghai. Winter begins in mid December and ends around early March. Scattered light rain is frequent around mid-June to July.

Transportation
Shanghai has an excellent public transportation system and in contrast to other major Chinese cities has clean streets and surprisingly little air pollution. The public transportation system in Shanghai is flourishing: Shanghai has more than one thousand bus lines and three metro (subway) lines (line1 no.1, no.2 and no.3) at present. According to the development schedule of the Government, by the year 2010, another 9 lines will be built in Shanghai.

Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao Airport and Pu Dong International Airport. Transrapid (a German maglev company, which has a test track in Emsland, Germany), constructed the first operational maglev railway in the world, from Shanghai's Long Yang Road subway station to its airport. It was inaugurated in 2002. Commercial exploitation has started in 2003. It takes 8 mins to travel 30km.

Three railways intersect in Shanghai: Beijing-Shanghai Railway, Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, and Xiaoshan-Ningpo (xiao1 yong3).

People and Culture
The native language spoken is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese; while the official language is Mandarin Chinese. The local dialect is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin Chinese, and is an inseparable part of the Shanghainese identity. Nearly all Shanghainese under the age of 50 can speak Mandarin Chinese fluently; and those under age of 25, have had contact with English since primary school.

Shanghai is the birthplace of everything considered modern in China; and was the cultural and economic center of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century. It was the intellectual battleground between socialist writers who concentrated on critical realism (pioneered by Lu Xun and Mao Dun) and the more bourgeois, more romantically and aesthetically inclined writers (such as Shi Zhecun, Shao Xunmei, Ye Lingfeng, Eileen Chang). Besides literature, Shanghai was also the birthplace of Chinese cinema. China’s first short film, The Difficult Couple (Nanfu Nanqi, 1913), and the country’s first fictional feature film, Orphan Rescues Grandfather (Gu’er Jiuzu Ji, 1923) were both produced in Shanghai. These two films were very influential, and established Shanghai as the center of Chinese film-making. Shanghai’s film industry went on to blossom during the early Thirties, generating Marilyn Monroe like stars such as Zhou Xuan, who committed suicide in 1957. The talent and passion of Shanghainese filmmakers following World War II and the Communist Revolution contributed enormously to the development of the Hong Kong film industry.

Shanghainese people have been stereotyped by other Chinese (both urban and rural) as being pretentious, arrogant, and xenophobic; and at the same time admired for their meticulous attention to detail, faithfulness in contract, and professionalism. Nearly all registered Shanghainese residents are descendents of immigrants from the two small adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, regions that generally speak the same family of dialects as the Shanghainese, that is Wu Chinese. Much of pre-modern Shanghainese culture is an integration of cultural elements from these two regions. The Shanghainese dialect reflects this as well. Recent migrants into Shanghai, however, come from all over China and are usually Mandarin speakers. Rising crime rate, littering, harrassive panhandling, and overloading of basic infrastructure (mainly public transportation, schools) associated with the rise of these migrant populations (over 3 million new migrants in 2003 alone) have been generating some extent of ill will and xenophobia from the Shanghainese. The new Mandarin-speaking migrants are easy to spot by the Shanghainese, and are often targets of both intentional and unintentional discrimination. This further intensifies the misunderstandings and stereotypes between the Shanghainese and the Chinese outside of the Lower Yangtze basin.

One uniquely Shanghainese cultural element is the Shikumen residencies (longtang), which are characteristic two or three-storey black/gray brick structures cut across with a few decorative dark red stripes. Each residence is connected and arranged in straight alleys, with the entrance to each alley, the gate, wrapped by a stylistic stone arc (the name Shikumen is literally stone gate). The Shikumen residencies is a cultural blend of the elements found in Western architecture with traditional Lower Yangtze Chinese architecture and social behavior. All traditional Chinese dwellings had a courtyard, and the Shikumen was no exception. Yet, to compromise with its urban nature, it was much much smaller, and served mainly as a room without a roof, providing a "interior haven" to the commotions in the streets, allowing for raindrops to fall and vegetation to grow freely within a residence. The courtyard also allowed sunlight and adequate ventilation into the rooms. Before World War II, more than 80% of the population in the city lived in these kinds of dwellings.

Other Shanghainese cultural artifacts include the cheongsam, a modernization of the traditional Chinese/Manchurian qipao garment first appeared in 1910's in Shanghai. The cheongsam dress was slender with a high cut, and tight fitting. This contrasts sharply with the traditional qipao which was designed to conceal the figure and be worn regardless of age. The cheongsam went along well with the western overcoat and the scarf, and portrayed an unique East Asian modernity, epitomizing the Shanghainese population in general. As Western fashions changed, the basic cheongsam design changed, too, introducing high-necked sleeveless dresses, bell-like sleeves and, the black lace frothing at the hem of a ball gown. By the 1940s, cheongsams came in transparent black, beaded bodices, matching capes and even velvet. And later, checked fabrics became also quite common. The 1949 Communist Revolution ended the cheongsam and other fashions in Shanghai. However, the Shanghainese styles have seen a recent revival as stylish party dresses.

Much of the Shanghainese culture (Shanghainese Pops) were transferred to Hong Kong by the millions of Shanghainese emmigrants and refugees after the Communist Revolution. The movie In the Mood for Love directed by Wong Kar-wai (a native Shanghainese himself) depicts one slice of the displaced Shanghainese community in Hong Kong and the nostalgia for that era, featuring 1940's music by Zhou Xuan.

Cultural sites in Shanghai include:

The Bund
Shanghai Museum
Shanghai Grand Theater
Longhua Temple, largest temple in Shanghai, built during the Three Kingdoms period
Yuyuan Gardens
Jade Buddha Temple
Jing An Temple
Xujiahui Cathedral, largest Catholic cathedral in Shanghai
Dongjiadu Cathedral
She Shan Cathedral
The Orthodox Eastern Church
Xiaodaoyuan (Mini-Peach Orchard) Mosque
Songjiang Mosque
Ohel Rachel Synagogue
Lu Xun Memorial
Shikumen site of the First CPC Congress
Residence of Sun Yat-sen
Residence of Chiang Kai-shek
Shanghai residence of Qing Dynasty Viceroy and General Li Hongzhang
Ancient rivertowns of Zhujiajiao and Zhoushi on the outskirts of Shanghai

Misc.
The tallest structure in China, the distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower, is located in Shanghai. The Jin Mao tower located nearby is mainland China's tallest skyscraper, and ranks fourth after Sears Tower in the world.

Shanghai will be the host of Expo 2010, a world's fair.

Shanghai, Hu for short, is a renowned international metropolis drawing more and more attention from all over the world. Situated on the estuary of Yangtze River, Shanghai serves as the most influential economic, financial, international trade, cultural, science and technology center in East China. Also it is a popular tourist destination, visitors can sense the pulsating development of modern China.


In addition to its modernization, Shanghai's multicultural flair endows Shanghai with a unique glamour. Here, one finds the perfect blend of cultures, the modern and the traditional , and the western and the oriental. New skyscrapers and old Shikumen lanes together draw the skyline of Shanghai. Western customs and Chinese traditions intertwined, form Shanghai's culture, making a visitor's stay truly memorable.


 Shanghai ranks no. 2 in the top 20 China destinations for overseas tourists in 2011. See the latest statitics on China tourism 2011.