Shanghai is China's largest commercial and financial centre and is considered by many to be the gateway into China. Once known as the "Paris of the Orient," modern is a city without attracts millions of visitors annually from abroad as well as from across China that flock to enjoy its excellent shopping, famed tourist sites and buzzing street culture.
With a population in excess of 20 million, Shanghai is one of the largest and most populous cities in China. Famous throughout Asia as major cultural and commercial centre, Shanghai is a fascinating mix of East and West. On its streets visitors may see a variety of architectural styles, betraying both its Han Chinese heritage and its years as treaty port of numerous European powers.
Shanghai is situated on the coast of the East China Sea, south of the mouth of the Yangtze River. Running from north to south, the Huangpu River that splits the city in two teems with traffic. For centuries, boats have carried goods from the interior to be traded internationally through the Port of Shanghai.
The riversides of the Huangpu feature, not one, but two internationally famous skylines. The old city stretches west on the Puxi side of the river, behind the Bund’s impressive backdrop of colonial era banks, consulates and hotels. On the eastern bank of the river, Pudong’s modern Lujiazui financial district rises from the river bank to peak with the Shanghai World Financial Centre: a concrete, glass and steel testament to the modern economic miracle that has totally transformed this marshland in under twenty years.
Both Pudong and Puxi bristle with new skyscrapers, though the flavours of old Shanghai can still be found in the Shikumen and lane houses that much of the population still live in. Even today, the people and languages of these old streets offer a direct path to an incredible past.
