“CITY ON THE SEA”
Shanghai sits at a latitude of 31.14 degrees north and a longitude of 121.29 degrees east on the Pacific Ocean, off the East China Sea. Lying mid-point along China's east coast, where the Yangtze River meets the sea, Shanghai literally means “city on the sea.” Its strategic location amid all this water has helped make it the largest port in China.
China Pavilion at 2010 World Expo
Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination
Shanghai is a thoroughly modern metropolis of nearly 19 million people, but without much history, compared to Bejing. Yet, in just 150 years, Shanghai has assumed the role of the nation’s commercial capital and the symbol of modern China. It holds a unique place in Chinese history because it owes its emergence to the influx of Westerners in the 19C.
The Huangpu and Suzhou rivers, which flowed to the sea, were redirected to the Yangtze River in the 12C, giving Shanghai control of the mouth of China’s richest waterway. The late 17C saw the opening of trade with Japan and Southeast Asia. By the mid-19C, Shanghai was home to 300,000 people and ranked as the principal port in the region. The victory of the Western powers over the Qing dynasty in the Opium Wars culminated in the signing in 1842 of the Treaty of Nanjing (or Nanking), which opened Shanghai to unrestricted foreign trade and resulted in the concessions: land areas that, while formally part of China, were administered and populated by an occupying foreign power. The French concession was governed by its consul; the British and American concessions eventually combined into the International Settlement, administered by a council of landowners.
Shanghai’s first fortunes were reaped from opium, real-estate speculation and finance, with bankers taking advantage of the vast amounts of money flowing through the city. Chinese and Western powers developed shipbuilding, textiles and food products industries. By 1915 Shanghai led the country in foreign trade, and 1.3 million people (15,000 of them Western expatriates) lived in the city. The 1911 Revolution that overthrew the Chinese emperor was financed in large part by Chinese elites based in Shanghai. In 1921 the Communist Party was founded in the French Concession. Anti-imperialist protests culminated in Shanghai in 1927 in armed rebellion, which was suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang). Following his rise to power, organized crime flourished openly. Vice was rampant, and in the 1920s and 30s, the city of wealth became a city of sin, filled with opium dens and brothels. World War II brought abrupt change. In 1937 the war's fiercest battle between the Chinese and the Japanese was fought in Shanghai. The Japanese emerged victorious, and more than 100,000 Chinese lost their lives. Almost completely destroyed, the city was quickly occupied by the Japanese; Chinese residents took refuge in the Western concession, tripling its population to 4.5 million. With the Japanese defeat in World War II, all of Shanghai, including the foreign territories, reverted to Chinese control. In 1949 the city came under Communist control. Party leader Mao Zedong took a dim view of the capitalist city. It played a significant role, however, in Mao’s 1966 Cultural Revolution when three leaders of Shanghai’s Communist faction allied themselves with Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, becoming known as the “Gang of Four.”
Shanghai's New Millennium Debut
From May to October 2010, Shanghai will host the 2010 World Expo. Some 70 million attendees are expected over the six-month period. To date, 241 countries are participating. Some 42 new projects are being constructed by the city, including a new tunnel under the Huangpu River. More than 20,000 events and performances will take place in some 35 venues during the Expo. Straddling both river-banks, the two-square-mile Expo site lies south of the city center, near the Nanpu Bridge; the majority of acres are on the Pudong side. The Expo theme, “Better City, Better Life,” embodies the city's concern with sustainable living in an urban setting. Michelin, a leading world tire manufacturer and publisher of travel guides, will have an exhibit on its green technology in the France pavilion.
Shanghai Fast Facts
Area: 2,448 square miles
Population: 18.58 million (2006)
Port facilities: $429 million of goods handled by city (2006)
Airline Passengers: 158,000/day in 2009. Expected in 2010: 250,000/day
After Mao's death in 1976, the reformist Deng Xiaoping came to power, but Shanghai did not see true economic recovery until it was authorized to create the Pudong in 1990. This new economic zone, which implemented growth-inducing measures, such as tax breaks and suspension of tariffs and duties, has seen remarkable foreign investment and has driven Shanghai to its present-day position as the engine of the Chinese economy. The city now accounts for 11 percent of China’s gross domestic product. In addition to a massive working population, students and visitors flock here, engendering even more growth (along with a speculative real-estate bubble and the striking transformation of the urban landscape). Ever in pursuit of the next big thing, Shanghai is hosting the World Exposition of 2010 (see box opposite page).