Shanghai
 
 
Shanghai, city in eastern China, situated on the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River,     near  the Yangtze's mouth to the East China Sea. It has a population of 13,341,852 (1990 census). Shanghai (Chinese for "on the sea") commands the entrance to the Yangtze River Basin, a large, populous, and economically productive region in central China. Shanghai is China's most important port, commercial hub, and  industrial center. It has hot, rainy summers and dry, cool winters, with
occasional typhoons in the summer and autumn.
Shanghai is an independently administered municipal district that  includes 9 counties and 12 urban districts in the city proper. The original city, an area known as Nanshi (Nantao), occupies a site just south of the point where the Wusong joins the Huangpu. Nanshi is now a densely compact jumble of crowded alleys and lanes. Shanghai grew west, south and north from this area, and the newer sections, typically with gridlike streets, are a result of the city's growth as a center of commerce,
shipping, and industry. Outside the built-up core are suburban areas and  farmland, which are being rapidly altered to urban uses as Shanghai grows. Along the Huangpu waterfront is Zhong Shan Road, a boulevard where European-style buildings were constructed here in the late 1800s and early1900s. This was the first place where ocean travelers traditionally came ashore in Shanghai.

As a result of economic reforms that began in the 1970s, the amount of commerce and trade in Shanghai has increased dramatically. It is China's leading center of industry and the city remains a manufacturing giant. Shanghai's port is one of the largest in China. Shanghai is one of China's leading centers of learning and culture. There are more than 50 institutions of higher learning here, including some of China's most famous universities. Shanghai has a rich and varied cultural life. The city supports an orchestra, a ballet troupe, and an opera. The Shanghai Library is one of the largest libraries in China.

Shanghai began more than 1000 years ago as a fishing village. It was officially designated a market town in 1074 and a market city in 1159. By 1292 the region and market city had grown to the point where a separate county of Shanghai was designated. Shanghai continued to grow during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) the development and use of cotton as a fabric material became widespread. By the 1700s the city was a prosperous center of cotton  growing and fabric and garment production. In 1842 China was forced to open Shanghai to British trade and residence. Other countries demanded and received similar privileges. In 1895 China was forced to allow Westerners and Japanese to invest directly in China and over the next half century Shanghai developed a distinctly Western character and experienced a period of important commercial, industrial, and political development.

The Chinese Communist Party was founded in the city in 1921, and Communist revolutionaries staged an uprising in Shanghai in 1925, which was violently suppressed two years later. The Japanese invaded China and seized Shanghai in 1937, occupying it until the end of World War II (1939-1945), when Shanghai again emerged as China's trading, banking, and shipping center. In 1949 Communist forces overran and occupied the city during the civil war. The new Chinese Communist government viewed Shanghai as a consumer city with strong ties to a capitalist economy, and they moved quickly to drain capital away from the city to support other areas of China. This pattern largely continued until economic reforms of the late 1970s.          .
 
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