Shanghai

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上海市
Shànghǎi Shì
Abbreviation: 沪 or 申 (pinyin: Hù or Shēn)
Image:Ashishshanghaiskyline2.jpg
Section of Shanghai's west bank
Image:China-Shanghai.png
Origin of name 上 shàng - above/on
海 hǎi - sea
"above sea"
Administration type Municipality
CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary Chen Liangyu 陈良宇
Mayor Han Zheng 韩正
Area 6,340.5 km² (31st)
Population (2004)
 - Metropolitan area
 - Density 		17,420,000 (25th)
approx. 10 million
2750/km² (1st)
GDP (2004)
 - per capita 		CNY 745.0 billion (7th)
CNY 42,800 (1st)
Major nationalities (2000) Han - 99%
Hui - 0.4%
City flower Yulan magnolia
(Magnolia denudata)
County-level divisions 19
Township-level divisions 220
Postal code 200000 - 202100
Area code 21
License plate prefixes 沪A, B, D, E
沪C (distant suburbs)
ISO 3166-2 CN-31
Official website:
www.shanghai.gov.cn (Simplified Chinese)
www.shanghai.gov.cn/english/index.html (English)
For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation).

Shanghai (Chinese: 上海 pinyin: Template:Audio; Shanghainese: Zanhe Template:IPA), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is China's largest city. The city is one of the most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers of China. Administratively, Shanghai is one of four municipalities of the People's Republic of China that have provincial-level status. Shanghai is also one of the world's busiest ports, it became the largest cargo port of the world in 2005 Template:Ref.

Originally a sleepy fishing town, Shanghai became China's most important city by the start of the 20th century and was the center of popular culture, vice, intellectual discourse and political intrigue in Republican China. Shanghai once became the third largest financial centre in the world ranking after New York and London, and the largest commercial city in Far East in the late 19th century and early 20th century. After the Communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished under heavy central government taxation and much of its bourgeois elements were purged. Since the government authorized the market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai quickly surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growth. One of the challenges for Shanghai in the early 21st century is to regain its former status as a world-class city and also make city life more comfortable for all of its residents, including migrant workers from poorer provinces.

Contents

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About the name Shanghai

Image:Shanghaikanji.png The two characters in the name "Shanghai" (see left) literally mean "on" and "sea". The local Shanghainese pronunciation of Shanghai is Zanhe Template:IPA (zan like the "zon" in "horizontal" and he like the first syllable in "herring"). The earliest occurrence of this name dates from the Song Dynasty (11th century), at which time there was already a river confluence and a town with this name in the area. There are disputes as to how the name should be interpreted, but official local histories have consistently said that it means "the upper reaches of the sea" (海之上洋). However, another reading, especially in Mandarin, also suggests the sense of "Go onto the sea", which is appropriate for the seaport status of the city. The more poetic name for Shanghai switches the order of the two characters (海上). In the West, Shanghai has also been spelled Schanghai (in German), Sjanghai (in Dutch), Xangai (in Portuguese) and Changhaï (in French), but since the 1990s the Hanyu Pinyin spelling of Shanghai has become universal throughout the world.

In Chinese, Shanghai's abbreviations are Hù (沪) and Shēn (申). The former is derived from the ancient name Hu Du (沪渎) of the river now known as Suzhou River. The latter is derived from the name of Chunshen Jun (春申君), a nobleman of the Chu Kingdom (楚国) in the 3rd century B.C. whose territory included the Shanghai area and has locally been revered as a hero. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use the character 申 in their names. Shanghai is also commonly called Shēnchéng (申城, the city of Shēn).

The city has had various nicknames in English, including "Paris of the East", "Queen of the Orient", "Pearl of the Orient", and even "The Whore of Asia" (a reference to corruption in the 1920s and 1930s, including vice, drugs and prostitution).

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History

Image:Karte Schanghai MKL1888.png Before the formation of Shanghai city, Shanghai was part of Songjiang county (松江縣), governed by Suzhou prefecture (蘇州府). From the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Shanghai gradually became a busy seaport, outgrowing its political jurisdictions (for instance, Songjiang (淞江) today is one of 18 districts within Shanghai).

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

During the reign of emperor Qianlong (乾隆) during the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai became a regionally important port for the Yangtze and Huangpu rivers and a sea port for the nearby regions in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, although overseas commercial activities were still forbidden at that time. Wujiaochang (五角场), now in Yangpu District, and the areas nearby already formed the foundation of the city's downtown. In the later years Qianlong's reign, Shiliupu (十六铺), now in Huangpu District, was already the largest port in East Asia.

The role of Shanghai grew 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 temporarily held 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, which officially lasted until 1943 but was functionally defunct by the late 1930s. Image:Shanghai 19th century.jpg.jpg 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.

1854 also saw the first annual meeting of the Shanghai Municipal Council, created in order to manage the foreign settlements. In 1863, the British settlement, located along the the western bank of the Huangpu river to the south of Suzhou creek (Huangpu district), and American settlement, located on the western bank of the Huangpu river and to the north of Suzhou creek (Hankou district) joined in order to form the International Settlement. The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and instead maintained its own French Concession, located to the west of 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.

Image:Shanghai1920s.jpgShanghai 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. The Japanese Navy bombed Shanghai on January 28, 1932, nominally in an effort to crush down Chinese student protests of the Manchurian Incident and the subsequent Japanese occupation. Shanghai was lost to Japan in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937 until its surrender in 1945. During World War II, Shanghai was a centre for refugees from Europe. It was the only city in the world that was open unconditionally to the Jews at the time. However, under pressure from their allies, the Nazis, the Japanese ghettoised the Jewish immigrants in late 1941, and diseases such as amoebic dysentery became rife.

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

Image:Shanghaid02.jpg After the communist takeover in 1949, 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. 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-1980s. At that time Guangdong province paid nearly no taxes to the central government, and thus was perceived as fiscally expendable for experimental economic reforms. Shanghai was not permitted to initiate economic reforms until 1991.

Political power in Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to higher positions within the PRC central government. In the 1990s, there was what was often described as the politically right-of-center "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, arguably at the expense of growth in Hong Kong, leading China's overall development.

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Politics and Administration

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Politics

Shanghai has been a political hub of China for many years. Many of China's top government officials in Beijing are known to have risen in Shanghai in the 1980s on a platform that was critical of the extreme leftism of the Cultural Revolution, giving them the tag "Shanghai Clique" during the 1990s. Many observers of Chinese politics view the more right-leaning Shanghai Clique as an opposing and competing faction of the current Chinese administration under Hu Jintao. Shanghai's top jobs, the Party Chief and the position of Mayor, has always been prominent on a national scale. Four Shanghai mayors eventually went on to take prominent Central Government positions, including former President Jiang Zemin and former Premier Zhu Rongji. The top administrative jobs are always appointed directly by the Central Government.

The current Shanghai government under Mayor Han Zheng has openly advocated for transparency in the city's government. However, in previous years a complicated system of relationships between Shanghai's government, banks, and other civil institutions have been under scrutiny for corruption, motivated by politics in Beijing; these allegations from Beijing have mostly gone nowhere.

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Administration

Shanghai is administratively equal to a province and is divided into 19 county-level divisions: 18 districts and 1 county. There is no single downtown district in Shanghai, the urban core is scattered across several districts. Prominent central business areas include Lujiazui on the East bank, and The Bund and Hongqiao areas in the West Bank. The city hall and major administration units are located in Huangpu District, which also serve as a commercial area, including the famous Nanjing Road. Other major commercial areas include the classy Xintiandi and Huaihai Road in Luwan district and Xujiahui in Xuhui District. Many universities in Shanghai are located in residential areas of Yangpu District and Putuo District. Image:Puxi.jpg

Nine of the districts govern Puxi (literally West Bank), or the older part of urban Shanghai on the west bank of the Huangpu River. These nine districts are collectively referred to as Shanghai Proper (上海市区) or the core city (市中心):

Image:Pudong.JPG Pudong (East Bank), or the newer part of urban and suburban Shanghai on the east bank of the Huangpu River, is governed by:

  • Pudong New District (浦东新区 Pǔdōng Xīn Qū) — Chuansha County until 1992

Eight of the districts govern suburbs, satellite towns, and rural areas further away from the urban core:

Chongming Island, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze, is governed by:

  • Chongming County (崇明县 Chóngmíng Xiàn)

As of 2003, these county-level divisions are further divided into the following 220 township-level divisions: 114 towns, 3 townships, 103 subdistricts. Those are in turn divided into the following village-level divisions: 3,393 neighborhood committees and 2,037 village committees.

List of towns:

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Economy and demographics

Image:Bundnightview.JPG Image:Martin O'Connell tiantong road.jpg

Shanghai is the often regarded as the center of finance and trade in mainland China. Modern development began with economic reforms in 1992, a decade later than many of the Southern Chinese provinces. Prior to then, much of the city's tax 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's annual tax burden pre-1990s was on average 70% of the national total). Shanghai today is the biggest and most developed city in mainland China.

Shanghai is one of the world's busiest ports. In 2005, Shanghai ranked first of the world's busiest ports in terms of cargo throughput, handling a total of 443 million tons of cargo. In terms of container traffic, it is the third busiest port in the world, following Singapore and Hong Kong.

The 2000 census put the population of Shanghai Municipality to 16.738 million, including the floating population, which made up 3.871 million. Since the 1990 census the total population has increased by 3.396 million, or 25.5%. Males accounted for 51.4%, females for 48.6% of the population. 12.2% were in the age group of 0-14, 76.3% between 15 and 64 and 11.5% were older than 65. 5.4% of the inhabitants were illiterate. As of 2003, the official registered population is 13.42 million; however, more than 5 million more people work and live in Shanghai undocumented, and of the 5 million, some 4 million belong to the floating population of temporary migrant workers, a large proportion of whom are from Anhui Province as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. The average life expectancy in 2003 was 79.80 years, 77.78 for men and 81.81 for women.

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 ¥46,586 (ca. US$ 5,620) 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 in 1997, Shanghai has increased its role in finance, banking, and as a major destination for corporate headquarters, fueling demand for a highly educated and modernized workforce. Shanghai has recorded a double-digit growth for 14 consecutive years since 1992. In 2005, Shanghai's nominal GDP posted an 11.1% growth to 912.5 billion yuan (US$114 billion). [1]

As in many other areas in China, Shanghai is undergoing a building boom. In Shanghai the modern architecture is notable for its unique style, especially in the highest floors, with several top floor restaurants which resemble flying saucers. For a gallery of these unique architecure designs, see Shanghai (architecture images). The bulk of Shanghai buildings being constructed today are high-rise apartments of various height, color and design. There is now a strong focus by city planners to develop more "green areas" (public parks) among the apartment complexes in order to increase the quality of life for Shanghai's residents, quite in accordance to the "Better City - Better Life" theme of Shanghai's Expo 2010.

Historically very western, Shanghai is increasingly a critical center of communication with the western world, examples include the opening of the Pac-Med Medical Exchange in June of 2004. Pac-Med is a clearinghouse of medical data and a link between the Chinese and westernized medical infrastructures. In medicine and other humanitarian fields, China is actively seeking input of first world nations to improve statistical living conditions and trade status. Arguments for and against modern Chinese leadership question the genuine influence the influx of western culture and medicine will have on the internal Chinese populace outside the densely populated, oft visited financial and cultural urban centers. The Pudong district of Shanghai contains westernized streets (European/American 'feeling' districts) in close proximity to major international trade and hospitality zones. Western visitors to Shanghai are greeted with free public parks, manicured to startling perfection in distinct contrast to the massive industrial installations which reveal China's emerging environmental concerns. For a densely populated urban center and international point of trade, Shanghai is generally noticeably free of crime against its visitors. Shanghai's international diversity is perhaps the world's foremost window into the rich, historic and complex society of today's China.

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Geography and climate

Image:ClimateShanghaiChina.PNG 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.

Geographical coordinates: Template:Coor dm

Shanghai experiences all four seasons, with freezing temperatures during the winter season and a 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) average high during the hottest months of July and August. Temperatures extremes of -10C (14F) and +41C (105F) have been recorded. Heavy rain is frequent in early summer. Spring starts in March, summer in June, autumn in September and winter in December. The weather in spring, although considered the most beautiful season, is highly variable, with frequent rain and alternating spells of warmth and cold. Summer is the peak tourist season, but is hot and oppressive, as the humidity makes it almost impossible for people not used to the environment to breathe properly. Clothes tend to get fairly wet after minutes of walking. Autumn is generally sunny and dry, and the foliage season is in November. Winters are typically grey and dreary, with no snowfall. The city has a few Typhoon spells during the year, none of which in recent years have caused considerable damage.

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Astronomical phenomena

The previous total solar eclipse to be seen from the center of Shanghai (Template:Coor dm) occurred on May 10, 1575.

The next total solar eclipse that will be seen from Shanghai will be solar eclipse of 2009-Jul-22.

Wikisource has an article about solar eclipses as seen from Shanghai from 2001 to 3000. [2]

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Transportation

Image:Maglev june2005.jpg Shanghai has an excellent public transportation system and in contrast to many other major Chinese cities has clean streets and decent air quality Template:Ref. Air pollution, however, is substantial compared with many other major cities around the world.

Shanghai has more than one thousand bus lines and the Shanghai Metro (subway and elevated lightrail) has five lines (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) at present. According to the development schedule of the Government, by the year 2010, another 8 lines will be built in Shanghai. Image:Shanghai Metro inside train.jpg Image:Shanghai Metro station 4a.jpg

Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao and Pudong International, which has the second highest (combined) traffic in China, following Hong Kong International Airport. Transrapid (a German maglev company, which has a test track in Emsland, Germany), constructed the first commercial maglev railway in the world, from Shanghai's Longyang Road subway station to Pudong International Airport. It was inaugurated in 2002. Commercial operation started in 2003. It takes 7 minutes and 21 seconds to travel 30km and it reaches a maximum speed of 431 km/h.

As of December 2005, Shanghai's port, including the newly opened Yangshan deep water port (洋山深水港), is the largest in the world. What is currently longest cross-sea bridge of the world, the Donghai Bridge (东海大桥) with a total length 32.5km, links Shanghai on the mainland to the Yangshan islands.

Three railways intersect in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway (Beijing-Shanghai) Railway passing through Nanjing (京沪线), Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway (沪杭线 Hu Hang Line), and Xiaoshan-Ningbo (萧甬线 Xiao Yong Line). Shanghai has three passenger railway stations, Shanghai Railway Station, Shanghai West Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station. A maglev train route to Hangzhou (Huhang Expressway 沪杭磁悬浮线) will begin construction in 2006 and is planned to be finished in 2008. A high-speed train to Beijing is also in the works.

Expressways from Beijing (Jinghu Expressway) and from the region around Shanghai connect to the city. There are ambitious plans to build expressways to connect Chongming Island.

Within Shanghai itself, there are elevated roads, which appear expressway-like in road conditions (direction-separated lanes). Tunnels and bridges are used to link Puxi to Pudong.

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Culture

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Language

The vernacular language is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese; while the official language is Standard Mandarin. The local dialect is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin, but is an inseparable part of the Shanghainese identity. The Shanghainese dialect today is a mixture of standard Wu Chinese as spoken in Suzhou, with the dialects of Ningbo and other nearby regions whose peoples have migrated to Shanghai in large numbers in the 20th Century.

Nearly all Shanghainese under the age of 50 can speak Mandarin fluently. Fluency in foreign languages is unevenly distributed. Most senior residents who received a university education before the revolution, and those who worked in foreign enterprises, can speak fluent English. Those under the age of 26 have had contact with English since primary school, as English is taught as a mandatory course starting at Grade 3.

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Art

Middle and late Ming Dynasty: Songjiang School (淞江派), Huating School (华亭派) Songjiang School is a small painting school in middle and late Ming Dynasty. It is commomnly considered as the further develop of Wu School, or Wumen School (吴门画派). Huating School is an inportant art school in middle and late Ming Dynasty period, Its main achievements were in traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and poetry, especially in Renwen painting (人文画). Dong Qichang (董其昌) is one of the masters from this school.

Late Qing Dynasty till now: Hai School (海派) or Shanghai School The Hai School is a very important Chinese school of traditional arts in Late Qing Dynasty and the whole 20th century. Under the effort of the masters from this school, traditional Chinese arts reach its another climax. The most wellknown figures from this school may be Ren Yi (任伯年), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), Sha Menghai (沙孟海, calligraphist), Pan Tianshou (潘天寿), Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) and so on.

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Modern China

Image:Qipao1.jpg

Because of Shanghai's status as the cultural and economic center of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century, it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in China. Here, for example, was the first motor car driven and the first modern sewers laid. It was also 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 & theater. China’s first short film, The Difficult Couple (Nanfu nanqi, 1913), and the country’s first fictional feature film, Orphan Rescues Grandfather (Gu'er jiu zuji, 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.

Much of the Shanghainese culture (Shanghainese Pops) were transferred to Hong Kong by the millions of Shanghainese emigrants and refugees after the Communist Revolution. The movie In the Mood for Love (Huayang nianhua) 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 1940s music by Zhou Xuan.

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Popular stereotypes

Shanghainese people have often been stereotyped by other Chinese (both urban and rural) as being materialistic, pretentious, arrogant and disdainful of provincials; and at the same time, however, they are admired for their meticulous attention to detail, faithfulness in contract and professionalism. It is a belief of many Chinese from other provinces of China that Shanghainese men can be very henpecked (nagged or controlled by their wives). Admittedly there is some truth in the opinion: husbands in Shanghai often simultaneously play the roles of a bread-winner, father, cook, plumber, carpenter, etc. Interestingly, this view, though a somewhat outmoded in the context of the new century, is still one of first things many people think of at the mention of Shanghai.

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People of other provinces

Only very few residents are descended from original inhabitants of the old walled city. Nearly all registered Shanghainese residents are descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late 19th and the early 20th Century. These are regions that generally speak the same family of dialects as Shanghainese - 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.

Despite this heterogeneous origin to the Shanghainese population, there has been a strong sense of Shanghainese identity, founded upon cultural and economical superiority up until the Revolution. The Revolution was a humbling experience for Shanghai as a whole, as it was brought into line by the Communist regime, whose ideology favoured grass-root agriculture and industry, and opposed bourgeois excesses, which Shanghai stood for in the eyes of many. This led to a spiraling cycle, with the Shanghainese eyeing the rest of the country with disdain as "provincials" (乡下人; xian wo nin in Shanghainese), while the rest of the country thought of the Shanghainese as arrogant and petty.

This has been fuelled in recent times, by migrants from all over China, who do not speak the local dialect and are therefore forced to use Mandarin as a lingua franca. Rising crime rates, littering, harassive panhandling, and an overloading of the 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 ill will from the Shanghainese. The new 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.

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Longtang (londan)

Image:Xintiandi gem.jpg One uniquely Shanghainese cultural element is the Shikumen residences, which are two or three-story townhouses, with the front yard protected by a high brick wall. Each residence is connected and arranged in straight alleys, known as a nóngtáng (弄堂), pronounced londan in Shanghainese. The entrance to each alley is usually surmounted by a stylistic stone arch. The whole resembles terrace houses or townhouses commonly seen in Anglo-American countries, but distinguished by the tall, heavy brick wall in front of each house. The name "Shikumen" literally means "Stone storage door", referring to the strong gateway to each house.

The Shikumen is a cultural blend of 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 smaller, and provided 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.

This style of housing originally developed when local developers adapted terrace houses to Chinese conditions. The wall was added to protect against fighting and looting during the Taiping rebellion, and later burglars and vandals during the social upheavals of the early twentieth century. By World War II, more than 80% of the population in the city lived in these kinds of dwellings. Many of these were hastily built and were akin to slums, while others were of sturdier construction and featured all modern amenities such as the flushing toilet.

During and after World War II, massive population increases in Shanghai led many Shikumen houses to be heavily subdivided. For example, the spacious living room is often divided into three or four rooms, each lent out to a family. These cramped conditions continue to exist in many of the Nongtang districts that have survived recent development. Image:Shanghaistreets fashion.jpg

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Fashion

Other Shanghainese cultural artifacts include the cheongsam (Shanghainese: zansae), a modernization of the traditional Chinese/Manchurian qipao (Shanghainese: gibo) garment which first appeared in the 1910s in Shanghai. The cheongsam dress was slender with high cut sides, 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. The fashion industry has been rapidly revitalizing in the past decade, there is on average one fashion show per day in Shanghai today. Like Shanghai's architecture, local fashion designers strive to create a fusion of western and traditional designs, often with innovative if not controversial results.

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Cultural sites

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Image:St Ignatius Cathedral.JPG

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Colleges and universities

Shanghai is home to many of China's top and oldest universities.

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National

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Image:Shanghaimusiccons.jpg

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Public

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Private

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

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Media portrayals

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Literature

  • Han Bangqing (韓邦慶), The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (『海上花列傳』; pinyin: Haishang Hua Liezhuan), a novel following the lives of Shanghainese sing-song girls (courtesans who sing, dance and may provide sexual services) and the timeless decadence surrounding them. The novel was first published in 1892 during the last two decades of the Qing Dynasty, with the dialogue completely in vernacular Wu Chinese (Shanghainese). The highly popular novel set a precedent for Chinese literature and was later translated into Mandarin and English by Eileen Chang. In 2005, Eileen Chang's translation was revised by Eva Hung and published in English by Columbia University Press. The novel is also sometimes called Flowers of Shanghai after the 1998 film adaptation.
  • Eileen Chang was a famous Shanghainese writer during World War II. Nearly all her works of bourgeois romanticism are set in Shanghai, and many have been made into arthouse films (see Eighteen Springs).
  • Mao Dun, a socialist writer and playwright, is famous for his Ziye, set in Shanghai.
  • Ba Jin, one of the most renowned Chinese writer of the last century, lived and worked in Shanghai, and set some of his works in the city.
  • Lu Xun, regarded as the leading leftist voice in pre-1949 Shanghai, lived and worked in Shanghai.
  • One of the great Chinese novel of the twentieth century, Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged is partially set in Shanghai and has mostly Shanghainese characters.
  • Tom Bradby's 2002 historical detective novel The Master of Rain is set in the Shanghai of 1926.
  • Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel The Diamond Age is set in an ultra-capitalist Shanghai of the future.
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Films

Image:Shanghai Triad DVD.jpg

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More Photos

West bank skyline

Shanghai Pudong (east bank) skyline

Pudong seen from the Huangpu River

Commercial advertisements cover buildings on Huaihai Road

Street and traffic in Shanghai

Nanshi district, parts of Shanghai still remain very traditional (2005 photo).

Confucius temple in Yuyuan Garden

Shanghai apartments and city parks

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Sister cities

Shanghai has city partnerships with the following cities:

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Miscellaneous

Image:Shanghai World Expo.gif The tallest structure in China, the distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower, is located in Shanghai. Its lower sphere is now available for living quarters, starting at very high prices. The Jin Mao tower located nearby is mainland China's tallest skyscraper, and ranks fifth in the world.

Shanghai will be the host of the Expo 2010 World's Fair between May to October 2010

Professional sports teams in Shanghai include:

The city has hosted the first Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit on 26 September 2004.

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See also

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References

 | url=http://www.zhb.gov.cn/english/air-list.php3 
 | title=Air Quality Daily Report for 84 Major Cities In China

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External links

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Province-level divisions administered by the People's Republic of China Image:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg
Provinces: Anhui | Fujian | Gansu | Guangdong | Guizhou | Hainan | Hebei | Heilongjiang | Henan | Hubei | Hunan | Jiangsu | Jiangxi | Jilin | Liaoning | Qinghai | Shaanxi | Shandong | Shanxi | Sichuan | Yunnan | Zhejiang
Autonomous Regions: Guangxi | Inner Mongolia | Ningxia | Tibet | Xinjiang
Municipalities: Beijing | Chongqing | Shanghai | Tianjin
Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong | Macau
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