Shanghai Travel Guide

China City Guide

Shanghai Brief

Shanghai , also named "Hu" or "Shen" in short, is situated at 31"14' north latitude and 121"29' east longitude, and in the middle of China's east coastline. It occupies a total area of 6,341sq.km. (of which Pudong new Area occupies 523sq.km.), with a total resident population of 16,000,000. It has a pleasant climate, with four distinct seasons. The average temperature is around 18oC and the annual precipitation is 1,240mm.

Shanghai , an open city on the coast and a famous historical and cultural city, is a gate to the Yangtze River delta. It is a municipality under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Government, the largest economic and trade center, a comprehensive industrial base and the leading port in China.

Shanghai is well known in the world not only for its prosperous cosmopolitan feature but also for its rich humanistic resources. In recent years, a number of modem buildings have been added to the city, such as the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Library, Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai Circus City, Shanghai City-Planning Exhibition Hall and Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Science & Technology Museum. They have become new scenic sights in Shanghai. Colorful festivities, like Shanghai Tourism Festival and Shanghai China International Art Festival, have attracted an increasing number of tourists from home and overseas.

Shanghai's tourist infrastructure is getting more and more accomplished. By the end of 2002, there were 40 international travel services, 524 domestic travel services and 300 star-rated hotels with about 50,000 rooms. Shanghai is an ideal "paradise for shoppers". There are commercial streets and shopping areas like the famous Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall, Huaihai Road, Sichuan Bei Road, Yuyuan Commercial and Tourist Area, the Ever Bright Commercial City, Xujiahui Commercial City and Zhangyang Road Commercial City in Pudong. There, shops stand rows upon rows with large collections of beautiful commodities, meeting the needs of tourists of different levels. Shanghai is also the paradise for gourmets. There are over a thousand restaurants serving the 16 different styles of food in China, such as the Beijing, Sichuan, Guangdong, Yangzhou, Fujian, etc. There are Western restaurants serving French, Russian, Italian, English, German, Japanese and Indian food and also Muslim and vegetarian food. In Shanghai, one can have a taste of all the delicacies in the world. Shanghai is well developed in communications by land, water and air. There are over 40 Chinese and foreign air companies opening about 300 air routes dispatching from Shanghai. Shanghai Railway Station dispatches everyday 80 pairs of trains back and forth from Shanghai. There are the Shanghai-Nanjing, Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Freeways. The Pudong International Airport has opened for traffic. Its annual passenger transport volume will be 20,000,000 person/times. Plus that of the Hongqiao International Airport, it will be 30,000,000 person/times. Subways No.1 and 2 and the light-rail first phase project are in operation. Together with the 10 special tour bus lines connecting Shanghai with neighbouring tourist areas, they will render faster service and more convenience in urban communications to tourists. Recently, the magnetic buoyant train has been opened to the public. It offers travelers a zero height of flight at 430 km/hr.

On Dec. 3, 2002, Shanghai succeeded in winning the bid for the sponsorship of World Expo 2010. The world has given China a share of luck and Shanghai will add more splendor to the world Shanghai is ushering in excellent opportunities for development. People of Shanghai warmly welcome visitors from home and overseas.

Shanghai History
Shanghai Climate
Shanghai Culture
Shanghai Transportation
Shanghai Food
Shanghai Geography

Shanghai History

The name Shanghai dates from the Sung dynasty (11th cent.), but the town, which became a walled city in the 16th cent., was unimportant until it was opened to foreign trade by the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. The ensuing Western influence launched the city on its phenomenal growth. The greater part of the city was incorporated into the British concession (1843), just north of the old walled city, and into the U.S. concession of Hongkew (1862). In 1863 the United States and Great Britain consolidated into the International Settlement the areas that had been conceded to them. The French, who had obtained a concession in 1849, continued it as a separate entity. The foreign zones, which were under extraterritorial administration, maintained their own courts, police system, and armed forces. Thus Shanghai until World War II was a divided city. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek, at the head of the Nationalist army and with the support of the Chinese Communists, captured Shanghai. The Chinese section was immediately placed under the Kuomintang government. Japan invaded and attacked the Chinese city in 1932 to force the government to break an unofficial boycott of Japanese goods. In Aug., 1937, as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese again attacked the Chinese city, and resistance was overcome in November. The foreign zones were occupied by the Japanese after Dec. 7, 1941..

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Shanghai Climate

Shanghai summers are hot and humid with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The rainy season begins in June. Fall is mostly mild. In winter (January to February) temperatures can reach below freezing. Spring begins again in March. Click here for 3-day weather forecast for Shanghai.

Weather during November to April is the coldest and temperatures range between 3.5oC to 13.7oC (38.3oF to 56.7oF). Weather in May, June, September and October is cooling, ranging between 18.6oC to 23.5oC (65.5oF to 74.3oF). Climate in July and August starts to turn warm and temperature can go up to 28oC (82.4oF)...

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Shanghai Culture

Exposed to Western influences as well as unparalleled economic development, pre&dash;war Shanghai was the nursery of many modern developments in Chinese culture. Lu Xun led the development of modern Chinese literature during his time here and literature by Shanghainese writers followed his lead. The prints and graphic arts of the period are rightly renowned as important cultural manifestos for new artistic styles and fashions. Shanghai cinema likewise was an important catalyst for China's cultural evolution. All this ended with the war and the Communist government has since kept a tight lid on cultural and other forms of activity. Cultural experimentation that has happened since has been more or less controlled. Well supported ensembles, such as the Shanghai Ballet Company, the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Municipal Performance Company, keep Shanghai at the forefront of official culture. Common prejudice has it that Beijing has the intellectuals and artists, while Shanghai has the down&dash;to&dash;earth wealth creators – but such easy categories fly in the face of Shanghai's modern cultural importance. Shanghai is also smart and sophisticated and that implies a cultural gloss...

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Shanghai Transportation

Shanghai is an enormous city and traveling on buses can be hard work; the routes, and particularly the stops, are not easy to figure out and buses are jam packed at rush hour. The subway, metro and light railway system, on the other hand, is the best way to get around town. Taxis are cheap and hassle-free as long as you avoid the rush hours. As private cars become increasingly affordable to the new middle class, traffic is becoming noticeably heavier, a trend that will only worsen. The city took a big swipe at traffic congestion in 1999, investing more than a billion dollars in transport – building overpasses, a second metro line and a light railway within a year. Unfortunately there is still not enough space for everyone at rush hour and from around 7am to 9:30am and 4pm to 6:30pm the streets are unbelievably crowded.

Getting around Shanghai By Taxi

Taxis in Shanghai are inexpensive and easy to flag down, except during rush hour. Only a few take credit cards. Most taxi drivers are surprisingly honest, but you should always use taxis with meters. Most taxis are green Volkswagen Santanas. These all have meters. To find available taxis, look for the red "for hire" sign on the dashboard on the passenger side...

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Shanghai Food

Shanghai, being a relatively new city in China, does not really have a cuisine of its own, but successfully refines all the work of the surrounding provinces such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Through years of culinary practice and the assimilation of the art in other styles of cuisine, Shanghai chefs have also created a style of cuisine peculiar to the region. Shanghai dishes are usually characterized by the use of heavy and highly flavored sauce. The use of sugar is another uniquness found in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used proportiaonally with soy sauce, the taste created is not so much sweet but rather savory. My chef friend told me that this is mainly due to the fact that sugar neutralized the sourness found in soy source. Household in Shanghai would consume as much soy source as sugar. Visitors are often surprised when the "secret ingredient" was revealed by local Shanghainese...

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Shanghai Geography

Shanghai, called "Hu" for short, is a bustling metropolis with a total area of 6,341 square kilometers (about 2,448 square miles).

Shanghai is situated at 31'14' north latitude and 121'29' east longitude in central-eastern China, along China's coastal line, facing the East China Sea at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Connected with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the west, the city is bordered by the East China Sea in the east and Hangzhou Bay on the south. North of the city, the Yangtze River flows into the East China Sea. The name Shanghai means 'on the sea'...

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China City Guide