"Brand new Shanghai" a Shanghai Travel Page by traveloturc

Shanghai situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the People's Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world. Also, Shanghai is one of the world's busiest ports, and became the largest cargo port in the world in 2005.

After all this is only 700 years old city.A city wall was built in AD 1553, which is generally accepted as the start of the city of Shanghai. However, before the nineteenth century, Shanghai was not considered a major city of China.The importance of Shanghai grew radically in the 19th century, as the city's strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River made it an ideal location for trade with the West.
During the First Opium War in the early 19th century, British forces temporarily held Shanghai. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which saw the treaty ports, Shanghai included, opened for international trade. The Treaty of the Bogue signed in 1843, and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia signed in 1844 together saw foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil, which officially lasted until 1943 but was essentially defunct by the late 1930s. From the twenties to the late 30s Shanghai was a so-called 'sin city'. Gangsters wielded a great deal of power and ran casinos and brothels.
On May 27, 1949, Communist Party of China controlled People's Liberation Army took control of Shanghai. It was one of the only three former Republic of China (ROC) municipalities not merged into neighbouring provinces over the next decade (the other being Beijing and Tianjin). It underwent a series of changes in the boundaries of its subdivisions, especially in the next decade.

Originally a fishing town, Shanghai became China's most important city by the twentieth century and was the center of popular culture, intellectual discourse and political struggle during the Republic of China era. After the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished due to heavy central government taxation and cessation of foreign investment, and had many of its supposedly "bourgeois" elements purged. Following the central government's authorization of market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai has now surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growthWidely regarded as the citadel of China's modern economy, the city also serves as one of the nation's most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers.Shanghai's skyscrapers and modern lifestyle are often seen as representing China's recent economic development.