Meaning of the name
"Up (on the) Sea"

Shanghai, a major port city on the west coast of the Pacific, is a municipality directly under the central government, covers 6341 square kilometers (145 square miles) and has 1,419 million inhabitants. It is between latitude 314 north and longitude 1219 east and an average annual temperature of 15.7C with an annual rainfall of 1,200 mm.

Located where the Yangtze River, China's largest river, joins the country's prosperous eastern coast, Shanghai has evolved from a small 19th century fishing town into a modern metropolis and a renowned financial and trade center in East Asia.

Shanghai has a written history of over 4,000 years. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, Shanghai became an important port for domestic and foreign trade. Now Shanghai Port is the country's largest and ranks third in the world. It is linked with more than 400 ports in about 160 countries and regions.

Known as the "Museum of World Architecture", Shanghai has houses and buildings of classical Chinese, European, Japanese and modern styles. The streets of Shanghai are named after Chinese provinces, cities and counties. The elevated Inner Ring Road, 47.66 kilometers long, surrounds the city proper and links Pudong with Puxi. Another elevated highway runs from south to north through the city's downtown area. The subway Metro Line One runs from the Shanghai Railway Station to Xinzhuang. A multi-tiered traffic network has emerged in Shanghai. The Bund along the Huangpu River was once known as the "Wall Street of Far East".

Shanghai is one of China's old industrial bases. The reform over the past 20 years has injected the city with new vitality. The city's service industry now represents a growing part of Shanghai's economy. Finance and insurance, commerce, real estate, tourism and information represent the key sectors for development. The city's goal is to turn Shanghai into a regional economic and trade center. The Shanghai Stock Exchange and various specialized markets have developed rapidly in Shanghai, which also has the country's largest foreign exchange trading center as well as many foreign banks and insurance companies.

The city has attracted more than 20,630 direct foreign investment projects, nearly 300 of which were invested by big-name multinationals. More than half of the world's top 100 industrial companies have invested in Shanghai.

Shanghai is also a historical and cultural city with a rich heritage: the beautiful Longhua Pagoda dating from 242 A.D., the exquisite Mao Pagoda built in Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty Huzhou Pagoda, which leans even more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Loom inventor Huang Daopo and famous Chinese calligrapher Zhao Menfu, both of the Yuan Dynasty, lived in Shanghai for some time. The city has a number of Ming and Qing Dynasties gardens. The most famous is the Yuyuan Garden built in 1559.

Shanghai also has the Former Residence of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuomintang (KMT); the Tomb of Soong Ching Ling, wife of late Dr. Sun Yat-sen and honorary president of the People's Republic of China; the Former Residence of Lu Xun, great man of letters in modern China; and other places of historical significance such as the Jade Buddha Temple and Xujiahui Church.

Geographical location:
Shanghai is situated at 31'14' north latitude and 121'29' east longitude. Bordering on Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the west, Shanghai is washed by the East China Sea in the east and Hangzhou Bay in the south. North of the city, the Yangtze River pours into the East China Sea. At the central point along China's coastal line, Shanghai has ready transportation facilities. Thanks to its advantageous geographic location, Shanghai has both excellent sea and river ports and a vast hinterland.

Neighboring Areas: Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province

Attractions in Shanghai

Shanghai Package Tour

Population:
16.74 million (2000).

Population growth rate: Shanghai led China in achieving a negative population growth rate in 1993. In 2000, the birth rate was 5.3 per thousand while the death rate was 7.2 per thousand; the natural population growth rate was -1.9 per thousand.

Life expectancy (average): 78.77 years in 2000, 76.71 years for men and 80.8 years for women.

Area: 7823.5 sq km

Ethnicity:
Shanghai is home to the Han people and 39 ethic minorities and a few unidentified ethnic groups. Minority ethnic population totals 53,000, accounting for 0.4 percent of the city's total population. The largest minority ethic group living in Shanghai is the Hui people, followed by the Manchu; those with the smallest population include the Va, Lahu, Maonan, Primi and Jing.

Culture
Shanghai has a lively cultural life, centered on its many museums, historical sites, gardens, parks, and performing arts centers.

Famous people born in Shanghai include:

• Emma (Hayden) Eames (1865-1952), American lyric soprano
• Hu Shih (1891-1962), Chinese Nationalist diplomat and scholar
• Denton Welch (1915-1948), English painter and novelist
• Edmond H. Fischer (1920- ), biochemist, co-recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
• Wang An (1920- ), electronics engineer, founder of Wang Computer.
  Food

Shanghai cuisine is noted for stir-fried dishes that use lots of cooking oil, along with ginger, sugar and wine, but not much spiciness. Special dishes include Shanghai Noodles, and many seafood dishes, including fish, shrimp, eels and crab.

Literacy:
In 2000, Shanghai boasted 37 institutes of higher learning and advanced polytechnic schools which enrolled a total of 81,300 freshmen. The total number of registered students was 226,800. Also in 2000, 12,700 students were enrolled into graduate schools and 5,868 postgraduates graduated. Since the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on Awarding Academic Degrees'' in 1981, the city has granted doctoral degree to 8,386 candidates and master's degree to 48,600 candidates.

In Shanghai, 99 percent of the children at school age go to school, and 97 percent of the junior high school graduates can continue their schooling in high schools or secondary vocational schools.

Elevation extremes:
The average elevation is about four meters above sea level.

Except for a few hills lying in the southwest corner, most parts of Shanghai are flat and belong to the alluvial plain of the Yangtze River Delta. According to the inspection of 2000, Shanghai covers a total area of 6,340.5 square kilometers, about 0.06 percent of the national territory, including 6,219 square kilometers of land area and 122 square kilometers of water area. It extends 120 km from south to north and 100 km from east to west. Its Chongming Island, covering an area of 1,041 square kilometers, is the third largest island in China.

Rivers: Huangpu River

Climate:
With a pleasant northern subtropical maritime monsoon climate, Shanghai enjoys four distinct seasons, with generous sunshine and abundant rainfall. Its spring and autumn are relatively short comparing with the summer and winter. In 2000, the average annual temperature was 17.6 ¡ãC. The city had a frost-free period of 300 days, and received an annual rainfall of 1,302 millimeters. However, nearly 50 percent of the precipitation came during the May-September flooding season, which is divided into three rainy periods, namely, the Spring Rains, the Plum Rains and the Autumn Rains.

Rainfall: average annual rainfall is about 1200 mm

Natural resources:
Dotted with many rivers and lakes, Shanghai is known for its rich water resources, with the water area accounting for 11 percent of its total territory. Most of the rivers are tributaries of the Huangpu River. Originated from the Taihu Lake, the 113 km Huangpu River winds through the downtown area of the city. The river is about 300 to 770 meters wide with an average width standing at 360 meters. The ice-free river is the main waterway in the Shanghai area.

The total water reserve in Shanghai stands at 2.7 billion cubic meters, 200 cubic meters per capita.

Facing the East China Sea, Shanghai has abundant aquatic resources. There are a total of more than 700 types of aquatic products in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. In addition, Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River where sea water and fresh water converge. The wide river mouth is home to 108 species of fish including 20 economic fishes. Shanghai also boasts a number of natural lakes with abundant bottom living things such as conch, Corbicula leana (a fresh-water variety of bivalves) and clam.

Tourism resources:
As a city of a long history, Shanghai has 13 historical sites under state protection, including characteristic gardens built during the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. A group of architectures built since the 1990s have added something new to the scenic attractions of the city. The Oriental Pearl TV tower, the No. 1 skyscraper in China and the People's Square well fit into the urban landscape and compete with the Western-style architectures built along the bunds.

Energy:
Shanghai has no conventional energy reserves such as coal, petroleum or waterpower. It has to rely on energies imported from other provinces. But Shanghai turns out a certain amount of high-quality second-energy products, including electric power, oil products, coke and gas (including liquefied petroleum gas). Potential energy resources to be tapped include methane, wind power, tidal power and solar energy.

Environment and current issues:
In 2000, Shanghai achieved the general improvement of the water quality of the Suzhou River. Its water became clearer and less smelly. The overall water quality of the Huangpu River has improved. The discharges of major pollutants decreased with the total suspended granules dropping by 7.1 percent, and nitrogen oxide dropping by 8.1 percent. The per capita green land for Shanghai citizens is 4.6 square meters. Gas for cooking is available to each household in the urban area.

Transportation
Railways:
Shanghai boasts some 100 special railway lines. In the future, an international container transportation rail network characterized by directness and quickness, linking Hong Kong and Macao in the south, Russia and Europe in the north, Middle Asian countries in the west, will be established in Shanghai.

Highways:
Shanghai has a convenient highway network which extends to townships and connects with other trans-regional artery highways. The city traffic has been greatly improved with the completion of elevated roads and light rail lines.

Airports:
Shanghai has two international airports -- Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong International Airport. The annual passenger handling capacity of the two airports is 16.4 million. After the completion of the four runways of the Pudong International Airport, the annual passenger flow in Shanghai will reach 100 million.

Harbor:
The Shanghai Harbor is the largest one in Chinese mainland. Beginning in the 1980s, its annual goods handling capacity surpassed 100 million tons.

Waterways:
Shanghai has established shipping business ties with 1,100 ports in more than 200 countries and regions. The ocean navigation lines lead to Hong Kong, Taiwan (via the third place), the Republic of Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, Israel, the Mediterranean, Northwest Europe, South Africa, South America and the United States. The domestic lines lead to all major ports along the coastline. The Yangtze River navigation routes lead to all ports at the middle and lower reaches of the river. The inland navigation waterways connect large and small harbors and docks in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

Telecommunications
Telephones:
By the end of 2002, the number of fixed telephone and mobile phone subscribers in Shanghai reached 6.72 million and 9.12 million respectively. Internet users numbered 4.196 million.

Radio and TV stations:
Shanghai has two radio broadcasting stations and five TV stations. There are 1,236 TV stations across the country using Shanghai satellite TV programs, covering an audience of over 200 million. Shanghai audience has also access to four encrypted channels of the China Central TV Station as well as the satellite TV programs of 10 other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. In 2000, major news media in Shanghai jointly launched the website of eastday.com.