Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city in China. It is an independent Municipality on the south-east coast of China. Almost 19 million people now live there.

Shanghai is on one of the important rivers in China, the Huang Pu River which joins the Yangzi Jiang at its mouth. The old city of Shanghai is on the north side of the Huang Pu.

Over the last 15 years a whole new modern Shanghai has sprung up to the south full of exciting new buildings and industries. There are different stories of how Shanghai got its name which means going up to the sea. We do know that it began its life as a small fishing village. For almost eight centuries it has been one of the most important cities in China. In the 19th and early 20th centuries it was the city where Europeans and Americans made their headquarters to trade with China. Even today, in parts of the city the old buildings look as though they should be in London, Paris or New York rather than in China. Architecture and buildings in Shanghai are a mixture of old and new.

The new city is an amazing place that changes every day as new buildings go up. Some of the buildings in Shanghai are among the tallest buildings in the world. Shanghai is the centre for China’s modern business and trade and is still the most important city and port for international business. More and more Chinese are coming to Shanghai from other parts of the country to look for work, and as fast as the city grows more houses and apartments seem to be needed.