Chinese Metropolis

With over 18 million inhabitants, Shanghai has developed from a small fishing village to a booming metropolis and the second largest city of China. Situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai is also known as the “pearl of the orient”. Today, Shanghai is the most important economic location in China.

The two Chinese characters in the name Shanghai literally mean "up, on, or above" and "sea", which is consistent with the seaport status of the city. Today, Shanghai is one of the world's busiest ports, and became the largest cargo port in the world in 2005. Administratively, Shanghai is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level status. There is no single downtown district in Shanghai, the urban core is scattered across 19 districts. But certainly Pudong is the most symbolic evidence of Shanghai's and China's economic development, with its impressive skyline that includes the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jin Mao Tower.

Widely regarded as the citadel of China's modern economy, Shanghai also serves as one of the nation's most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers. Modern development began with economic reforms in 1992, a decade later than in many of the Southern Chinese provinces, but since then Shanghai quickly overtook those provinces and maintained its role as the business center in mainland China.