General Introduction

Shanghai, the largest city in China and one of the four centrally administered municipalities, is situated along the middle of tile mainland coastline at the Yangtze River outlet to the East China Sea. After the Opium War of 1840, Shanghai was opened as a trade port to foreign powers which set up their concessions there through concluding unequal treaties with China. In the century or more that followed, Shanghai became the largest base of imperialist aggression in China, known in the West as an "adventurers' paradise". A city with a glorious revolutionary record in modern Chinese history, it was here that the Chinese Communist Party was founded in July 1921.

Shanghai has an area of 6,185 square kilometers, the city districts covering 145 square kilometers and the suburban area 6,040 square kilometers. Over 11.46 million people live in Shanghai -- 5.8 million in the city and the rest in the suburban counties.

Scenic Spots


Chongming Confucius Temple
City God Temple (Chenghuangmiao)
Jade Buddha Temple (Yufosi)
Longhua Pagoda and Longhua Temple
Lu Xun's Old Residence, Lu Xun's Tomb, and Lu Xun Museum
Nanjing Road
Site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China
Yu Garden


Topography

As part of the Yangtze River Delta Plain, Shanghai (including Chongming Island) has low, open terrain about four meters above sea level crisscrossed by a maze of natural waterways of the Taihu drainage basin. The Huangpu River and its tributary, the Wusong (Suzhou Creek), which have their headwaters in Taihu Lake, are the major waterways in Shanghai.

Climate

Shanghai has a sub-tropical climate -- mild and humid with four distinct seasons. It has a mean annual temperature of 15ºC -- the hottest month, August, averaging 28ºc. and the coldest month, January, 3ºC -- and a mean annual precipitation of 1,100 mm. It is often visited by typhoons between summer and autumn.

Communications

Shanghai Harbor is one of China's fine natural river-mouth harbors. Situated in the middle of the north-south shipping route along the mainland coast, it can accommodate 10,000-ton-class ships in all four seasons and has trade ties with the harbors of more than 100 countries and regions in the world. Shanghai has inland navigation lines in the Changjiang, Huangpu and Wusong rivers. As one of China's communication centers, it is also linked with the national rail network by the Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Hangzhou railways, and with many cities in the country by a web of domestic airlines. It is connected by international airlines with Tokyo, Osaka, Bombay, Athens, Geneva, Zurich and Karachi.