Shanghai

Welcome to Shanghai!

Shanghai (上海, Zånhae in Shanghainese, Shànghǎi in Mandarin) is the most developed city in China, the country's main center for finance and fashion, and one of the world's most populous and important cities. There are several ways to rate the size of cities, by the one Wikipedia uses, based on UN numbers, Shanghai is the third largest city in the world after Tokyo and Delhi. By any measure, it is in the top ten for the world and either the largest in China or second to Chongqing.

Shanghai is split in two by the Huangpu River (黄浦江 Huángpǔ Jiāng), which divides the city into Puxi (浦西 Pǔxī), west of the river, and Pudong (浦东 Pǔdōng), east of the river. Both terms can be used in a general sense for everything on their side of the river, including various suburbs. However, they are more often used in a much narrower sense where Puxi is the older (since the 19th century) city center (#Downtown below) and Pudong the mass of new (since 1990) high-rise development right across the river from there.

Shanghai is one of four cities in China that are administered as municipalities (市) at the same level in the hierarchy as provinces (discussion). It is not part of any province and there is no government structure at province, prefecture or city level, just a government for Shanghai Municipality and one for each of the 16 districts within it. This is an overview article for the entire municipality. For the central districts which have most of the tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants and nightspots, see #Downtown and #Pudong below.

The municipality covers quite a large area — 6341 km2 or 2,448 square miles — and has a population over 25 million, about the same as Australia and more than all but two US states and all but six EU member countries. Its GDP is larger than that of many countries, and it has the world's busiest container port. Shanghai is the main hub of the East China region, all of which is densely populated, heavily industrialized, prosperous, well supplied with migrant workers from poorer parts of China, and still growing.

History has shaped Shanghai's cityscape significantly. British-style buildings can still be seen on the Bund, while French-style buildings are still to be found in the former French Concession. What was once a horse racing track on the edge the British area is now People's Park, with a major metro interchange underneath. Other metro stops include the railway station at the edge of what was once the American area, and Lao Xi Men and Xiao Nan Men, Old West Gate and Small South Gate respectively, named for two of the gates of the old Chinese walled city.

1 Suzhou Creek (Wusong River). This is more a small river than a creek, a tributary which flows into the Huangpu at the north end of the Bund. It starts near Suzhou and is the outlet for Lake Tai. Within Shanghai parts of it form the boundary between Huangpu and Jing'an districts to the south and Hongkou and Zhabei to the north. Beisuzhou Road and Nansuzhou Road run along the riverbanks downtown, bei and nan are Chinese for north and south respectively. The city has quite a few parks scattered about—see #Parks below and the individual district articles for details—but other than that it is mostly heavily built up and densely populated. The surviving 19th-century buildings are nearly all at least two floors and fairly densely packed, and new buildings of 20 floors or more are widespread. Some of the suburbs still have low-density areas and even some farmland, but they also have large residential developments and big modern malls.

Groups of refugees from other parts of the world have sometimes arrived in Shanghai. One group were White Russians fleeing the 1917 revolution, in the 1920s the French Concession had more Russians than French (and of course more Chinese than both of those together). Another group were Jews leaving Germany in the 1930s, they mainly settled in Hongkou, a district that already had many Jews. After Japan took over Korea in 1910 and Manchuria in 1931, Shanghai received refugees from both regions.

Shanghai (Chinese: 上海) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China. The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowing through it. With a population of 24.87 million as of 2020, it is the most populous urban area in China, the most populous city proper in the world and the only city in East Asia with a GDP greater than its corresponding capital. Shanghai is a global center for finance, business and economics, research, education, science and technology, manufacturing, tourism, culture and transportation, and the Port of Shanghai is the world's busiest container port.

Originally a fishing village and market town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to both domestic and foreign trade and its favorable port location. The city was one of five treaty ports forced to open to European trade after the First Opium War. The Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession were subsequently established. The city then flourished, becoming a primary commercial and financial hub of Asia in the 1930s. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city was the site of the major Battle of Shanghai. After the war, with the communists takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries and the city's global influence declined.

By the 1990s, economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping a decade earlier resulted in an intense redevelopment of the city, especially the Pudong New Area, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment. The city has since re-emerged as a hub for international trade and finance, it is the home of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization and the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone, the first free-trade zone in mainland China. As of 2020, Shanghai is classified as an Alpha+ (global first-tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and ranked as having the 3rd most competitive and largest financial center in the world behind New York City and London by the Global Financial Centres Index. It has the largest metro network of any city in the world, the sixth-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, the fifth-largest scientific research output of any city in the world, and highly ranked educational institutions including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, East China Normal University, Shanghai University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and East China University of Science and Technology.

Shanghai has been described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of China. Featuring several architectural styles such as Art Deco and shikumen, the city is renowned for its Lujiazui skyline, museums and historic buildings including the City God Temple, Yu Garden, the China Pavilion and buildings along the Bund. Shanghai is also known for its sugary cuisine, distinctive local language and vibrant international flair. As an important international city, Shanghai is the seat of the New Development Bank, a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states and the city hosts more than 70 foreign representatives and numerous national and international events every year, such as Shanghai Fashion Week, the Chinese Grand Prix and ChinaJoy. Shanghai is the highest earning tourist city in the world, with the seventh most five-star hotels in the world, and the second tallest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower. In 2018, Shanghai hosted the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), the world's first import-themed national-level expo.