Shanghai

I

Introduction

Shanghai, city in eastern China, situated on the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, near the Yangtze’s mouth to the East China Sea. Shanghai (Chinese for “on the sea”) commands the entrance to the Yangtze River Basin, a large, populous, and economically productive region in central China. Shanghai is China’s most important port, commercial hub, and industrial center.

Shanghai has hot, rainy summers and dry, cool winters. With an average daily temperature range of 25° to 32°C (77° to 89°F), July is typically the hottest month. The average daily temperature range in January, the coldest month, is 1° to 8°C (33° to 46°F). Shanghai has an average annual precipitation of 1,110 mm (44 in). June is the wettest month and December is the driest. There are occasional typhoons in the summer and autumn.

II

Shanghai and Its Metropolitan Area

Shanghai is an independently administered municipal district of 6,341 sq km (2,448 sq mi). It includes 3 counties and 17 urban districts of the city proper. The urban districts cover 2,057 sq km (794 sq mi), of which about 300 sq km (about 116 sq mi) is built-up and densely populated. This area is expanding as a result of many construction projects in Shanghai. The municipality includes about 30 islands in the Yangtze River and along the coast of the East China Sea. The largest, Chongming Dao, constitutes one of Shanghai’s 3 counties.

The oldest section of Shanghai, near the confluence of the Huangpu River and the Wusong River (Suzhou Creek), reflects the city’s preindustrial growth as a walled center of trade and county seat. Shanghai grew west, south and north from this area, and the newer sections, typically with gridlike streets, are a result of the city’s growth as a center of commerce, shipping, and industry. After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, the development of Shanghai’s infrastructure languished, as revenue generated in the city was used to support other areas of China. As a result of economic reforms in the late 1970s, however, Shanghai’s suburbs began to grow.

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Just south of the point where the Wusong joins the Huangpu was an approximately 1.6-km (approximately 1-mi) long wall encircling the original city, an area known as Nanshi (Nantao). The wall was demolished in the early 20th century and replaced with a road. Nanshi is now a densely compact jumble of crowded alleys and lanes. Along the Huangpu waterfront is a small park, walkway, and boulevard, known before 1949 as the Bund. Now called Zhong Shan Road, this famous boulevard was the first place where ocean travelers traditionally came ashore in Shanghai. European-style buildings were constructed along this boulevard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These once served as the Customhouse, the British Consulate, foreign and Chinese banks and trading houses, and a number of major hotels and commercial establishments. Most foreigners left Shanghai in the 1940s and 1950s and many of these buildings were converted to Chinese government offices. Nanjing Road, running west from the Huangpu and perpendicular to Zhong Shan Road, is Shanghai’s principal shopping district; it is lined with retail and entertainment establishments for many blocks.

West and south of Nanshi is the zone of the former French Concession, an area administered by France from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. The French architecture consists of three- and four-story buildings, which are being rapidly replaced by high-rise structures. North and west of the French zone, extending beyond the Wusong, was the International Settlement, a zone formed when the British Concession merged with an area under United States influence. More than 1,000 high-rises have been built in these areas since 1990, dramatically changing the appearance and character of the city.

Outside the built-up core are suburban areas and farmland, which are being rapidly altered to urban uses as Shanghai grows. Former farmland is being converted to industrial, transportation, and residential purposes, and construction projects are evident throughout the municipality. Pudong, a large district on the east bank of the Huangpu, became the site of a massive development project in 1990 aimed at relieving some of the congestion and crowding in Shanghai proper. Since then, it has been transformed from an old, industrial area into a modern residential and commercial district. Pudong today boasts a large high-technology industrial park with many multinational firms as well as the Jin Mao Building, one of the world’s tallest buildings at a height of 421 m (1,380 ft). In addition, the Pudong International Airport opened here in 1999.

III

Economy

As a result of economic reforms that began in the late 1970s, the amount of commerce and trade in Shanghai has increased dramatically. Shanghai now has a stock market, several foreign banks, and a variety of hotels, clubs, bars, and restaurants. Since 1990 the central Chinese government has encouraged foreign investment by relaxing regulations and lessening bureaucratic procedures. Investment in Shanghai has increased substantially, giving rise to a huge construction boom. Retailing has also mushroomed, and the city now offers many of the finest department stores and shops in China.

The economy benefits from good education facilities that produce a large, well-trained labor force, with many people skilled at highly complex and technical manufacturing jobs. Shanghai is China’s leading center of industry, and industrial activity ranges from smelting at China’s largest integrated iron and steel plant, located at suburban Baoshan, to the manufacture of complex machinery and precision equipment, such as cellular telephones, fax machines, color television tubes, automobiles, textiles, foodstuffs, and electronics. Although manufacturing in other Chinese cities has increased and Shanghai’s share of the country’s total industrial output has declined in recent years, the city remains a manufacturing giant. In the late 1990s it contributed 7 percent of the total value of industrial production in China, and Shanghai’s workers are the most productive in the country.

Shanghai’s port is the largest in China. Major highways and railroads radiate northwest, west, and south to Nanjing, Beijing, Hefei, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and other major cities and towns. The city has an expanding subway system. A high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) train began operating in 2002, running from the city center to the Pudong International Airport, which opened in 1999 in the eastern Pudong district. Its opening relegated the old Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai’s southwestern Hongqiao suburb to domestic flights.

IV

Population

In 2000, Shanghai had a population of 12,887,000, making it China’s largest city. The UN estimated the 2003 population of the Shanghai urban agglomeration to be 12.8 million, while the Shanghai Municipality had a population of 17.1 million in 2003. Discrepancies in reported population values for Shanghai may be due to the difficulty in counting temporary residents and migrants, who may number as many as 3 million, because they often do not register with the local authorities. These migrants and temporary workers add to the congestion and crowding in Shanghai proper and local people frequently blame them for rising crime and rowdy behavior. To alleviate the crowding, the government housing office is relocating many city dwellers to subsidized high-rise apartments in the suburbs. Although these units offer modern conveniences that some city dwellings lack, such as indoor plumbing and electricity, many residents feel alienated and without a sense of community.

Almost all of Shanghai’s residents are ethnic Han Chinese, although there are small numbers of non-Han minorities. There are people from all regions of China and many foreign countries living in Shanghai. The local people speak a Chinese dialect called Wu. Most residents also speak Putonghua (Mandarin), China’s official spoken language.