China's largest city, Shanghai is situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta. The city's development in the past few decades have made it one of the most important economic, commercial, financial and communications center of China. Shanghai beguiled foreigners with its seductive mix of tradition and sophistication. Now it is reawakening and dusting off its party shoes for another silken tango with the wider world.

Shanghai expreses today the huge disparities of modern China: monumental building projects push skyward and glinting department stores swing open their doors to a stylish elite while child beggars, prostitutes and the impoverished gather outside. Always a city of jostling juxtapositions, Shanghai is entering the new millenium running hot on the friction of contrast and the energy of its own fevered growth. Shanghai has been the domain of adventurers, drug runners, swindlers, gamblers, idle rich, dandies, tycoons, missionaries, gangsters and backstreet pimps; a dark memory during the long years of forgetting that the Communists visited upon their new China. The architects of this social experiment firmly wedged one foot against the door of Shanghai's past.

Facts in a glance

Area: 6,340 sq km
Population: 13.4 million
Country: China
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +8 (Standard Time)
Telephone Area Code: 021

See Also

Events in Shanghai

Hotels in Shanghai

Restaurants in Shanghai

Nightlife in Shanghai

Attractions in Shanghai

Maps of Shanghai

Weather in Shanghai

Art in Shanghai