Technology is the making, usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. The word ''technology'' comes ; . The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include ''construction technology'', ''medical technology'', and ''information technology''.

Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

Definition and usage

The use of the term ''technology'' has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, and usually referred to the description or study of the useful arts. The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861). "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the second industrial revolution. The meanings of technology changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into "technology." In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between ''Technik'' and ''Technologie'' that is absent in English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology" referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves. In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills by which we produce and use them." Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study technology reject this definition. More recently, scholars have borrowed from European philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on technologies of the self ("techniques de soi").

Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge". Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here". The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as a whole. Bernard Stiegler, in ''Technics and Time, 1'', defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this definition of technology.

The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field.

Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture. Additionally, technology is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has, at its basis, the development of the Internet and the computer. Not all technology enhances culture in a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which formalize some aspects of technological endeavor.

Science, engineering and technology

The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. Science is the reasoned investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the phenomenal world by employing formal techniques such as the scientific method. Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as utility, usability and safety.

Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.

Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering — although technology as a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research and reference.

The exact relations between science and technology in particular have been debated by scientists, historians, and policymakers in the late 20th century, in part because the debate can inform the funding of basic and applied science. In the immediate wake of World War II, for example, in the United States it was widely considered that technology was simply "applied science" and that to fund basic science was to reap technological results in due time. An articulation of this philosophy could be found explicitly in Vannevar Bush's treatise on postwar science policy, ''Science—The Endless Frontier'': "New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous additions to knowledge of the laws of nature... This essential new knowledge can be obtained only through basic scientific research." In the late-1960s, however, this view came under direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentious—though most analysts resist the model that technology simply is a result of scientific research.

History

Paleolithic (2.5 million – 10,000 BC)

The use of tools by early humans was partly a process of discovery, partly of evolution. Early humans evolved from a species of foraging hominids which were already bipedal, with a brain mass approximately one third that of modern humans. Tool use remained relatively unchanged for most of early human history, but approximately 50,000 years ago, a complex set of behaviors and tool use emerged, believed by many archaeologists to be connected to the emergence of fully modern language.

Stone tools

Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' approximately 200,000 years ago. The earliest methods of stone tool making, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago, with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago. This era of stone tool use is called the ''Paleolithic'', or "Old stone age", and spans all of human history up to the development of agriculture approximately 12,000 years ago.

To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as flint) was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers. These tools greatly aided the early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to perform a variety of tasks including butchering carcasses (and breaking bones to get at the marrow); chopping wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its hide; and even forming other tools out of softer materials such as bone and wood.

The earliest stone tools were crude, being little more than a fractured rock. In the Acheulian era, beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stone into specific shapes, such as hand axes emerged. The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the prepared-core technique, where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone. The Upper Paleolithic, beginning approximately 40,000 years ago, saw the introduction of pressure flaking, where a wood, bone, or antler punch could be used to shape a stone very finely.

Fire

The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple energy source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind. The exact date of its discovery is not known; evidence of burnt animal bones at the Cradle of Humankind suggests that the domestication of fire occurred before 1,000,000 BC; scholarly consensus indicates that Homo erectus had controlled fire by between 500,000 BC and 400,000 BC. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten.

Clothing and shelter

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era were clothing and shelter; the adoption of both technologies cannot be dated exactly, but they were a key to humanity's progress. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380,000 BC, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa by 200,000 BC and into other continents, such as Eurasia.

Neolithic through Classical Antiquity (10,000BC – 300AD)

Man's technological ascent began in earnest in what is known as the Neolithic period ("New stone age"). The invention of polished stone axes was a major advance because it allowed forest clearance on a large scale to create farms. The discovery of agriculture allowed for the feeding of larger populations, and the transition to a sedentist lifestyle increased the number of children that could be simultaneously raised, as young children no longer needed to be carried, as was the case with the nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization. What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures, the specialization of labor, trade and war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges, such as the building of dikes and reservoirs, are all thought to have played a role.

Metal tools

Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided the ability to smelt and forge native metals (naturally occurring in relatively pure form). Gold, copper, silver, and lead, were such early metals. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone, and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 8000 BC). Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1400 BC.

Energy and Transport

Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailboat. The earliest record of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 BC. From prehistoric times, Egyptians probably used the power of the Nile annual floods to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and 'catch' basins. Similarly, the early peoples of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, learned to use the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for much the same purposes. But more extensive use of wind and water (and even human) power required another invention.

According to archaeologists, the wheel was invented around 4000 B.C. probably independently and nearly-simultaneously in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. Estimates on when this may have occurred range from 5500 to 3000 B.C., with most experts putting it closer to 4000 B.C. The oldest artifacts with drawings that depict wheeled carts date from about 3000 B.C.; however, the wheel may have been in use for millennia before these drawings were made. There is also evidence from the same period of time that wheels were used for the production of pottery. (Note that the original potter's wheel was probably not a wheel, but rather an irregularly shaped slab of flat wood with a small hollowed or pierced area near the center and mounted on a peg driven into the earth. It would have been rotated by repeated tugs by the potter or his assistant.) More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the Ljubljana marshes of Slovenia.

The invention of the wheel revolutionized activities as disparate as transportation, war, and the production of pottery (for which it may have been first used). It didn't take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads and fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery. But it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources.

Medieval and Modern history (300 AD —)

Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with new innovations such as silk, the horse collar and horseshoes in the first few hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Medieval technology saw the use of simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley) being combined to form more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow, windmills and clocks. The Renaissance brought forth many of these innovations, including the printing press (which facilitated the greater communication of knowledge), and technology became increasingly associated with science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. The advancements in technology in this era allowed a more steady supply of food, followed by the wider availability of consumer goods.

Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was a period of great technological discovery, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, metallurgy and transport, driven by the discovery of steam power. Technology later took another step with the harnessing of electricity to create such innovations as the electric motor, light bulb and countless others. Scientific advancement and the discovery of new concepts later allowed for powered flight, and advancements in medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering. The rise in technology has led to the construction of skyscrapers and large cities whose inhabitants rely on automobiles or other powered transit for transportation. Communication was also improved with the invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio and television.

The second half of the 20th century brought a host of new innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission has led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Computers were also invented and later miniaturized utilizing transistors and integrated circuits. These advancements subsequently led to the creation of the Internet. Humans have also been able to explore space with satellites (later used for telecommunication) and in manned missions going all the way to the moon. In medicine, this era brought innovations such as open-heart surgery and later stem cell therapy along with new medications and treatments. Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to construct and maintain these new technologies, and entire industries have arisen to support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education — their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have been created to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science, and other fields have been made more complex, such as construction, transportation and architecture.

Technology and philosophy

Technicism

Generally, technicism is a reliance or confidence in technology as a benefactor of society. Taken to extreme, technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will someday be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology. Some, such as Stephen V. Monsma, connect these ideas to the abdication of religion as a higher moral authority.

Optimism

Optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and singularitarianism, which view technological development as generally having beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of scientism and techno-utopianism and fear the notion of human enhancement and technological singularity which they support. Some have described Karl Marx as a techno-optimist.

Skepticism and Critics of Technology

On the somewhat skeptical side are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan, who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed. They suggest that the inevitable result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health.

Many, such as the Luddites and prominent philosopher Martin Heidegger, hold serious, although not entirely deterministic reservations, about technology (see "The Question Concerning Technology)". According to Heidegger scholars Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Spinosa, "Heidegger does not oppose technology. He hopes to reveal the essence of technology in a way that 'in no way confines us to a stultified compulsion to push on blindly with technology or, what comes to the same thing, to rebel helplessly against it.' Indeed, he promises that 'when we once open ourselves expressly to the essence of technology, we find ourselves unexpectedly taken into a freeing claim.'" What this entails is a more complex relationship to technology than either techno-optimists or techno-pessimists tend to allow.

Some of the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be dystopian literary classics, for example Aldous Huxley's ''Brave New World'' and other writings, Anthony Burgess's ''A Clockwork Orange'', and George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. And, in ''Faust'' by Goethe, Faust's selling his soul to the devil in return for power over the physical world, is also often interpreted as a metaphor for the adoption of industrial technology. More recently, modern works of science fiction, such as those by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, and films (e.g. Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell) project highly ambivalent or cautionary attitudes toward technology's impact on human society and identity.

The late cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and, finally, what he called "technopolies," that is, societies that are dominated by the ideology of technological and scientific progress, to the exclusion or harm of other cultural practices, values and world-views.

Darin Barney has written about technology's impact on practices of citizenship and democratic culture, suggesting that technology can be construed as (1) an object of political debate, (2) a means or medium of discussion, and (3) a setting for democratic deliberation and citizenship. As a setting for democratic culture, Barney suggests that technology tends to make ethical questions, including the question of what a good life consists in, nearly impossible, because they already give an answer to the question: a good life is one that includes the use of more and more technology.

Nikolas Kompridis has also written about the dangers of new technology, such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and robotics. He warns that these technologies introduce unprecedented new challenges to human beings, including the possibility of the permanent alteration of our biological nature. These concerns are shared by other philosophers, scientists and public intellectuals who have written about similar issues (e.g. Francis Fukuyama, Jürgen Habermas, William Joy, and Michael Sandel).

Another prominent critic of technology is Hubert Dreyfus, who has published books ''On the Internet'' and ''What Computers Still Can't Do''.

Another, more infamous anti-technological treatise is ''Industrial Society and Its Future'', written by Theodore Kaczynski (aka The Unabomber) and printed in several major newspapers (and later books) as part of an effort to end his bombing campaign of the techno-industrial infrastructure.

Appropriate technology

The notion of appropriate technology, however, was developed in the 20th century (e.g., see the work of Jacques Ellul) to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized infrastructure or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement emerged in part due to this concern.

Technology and competitiveness

In 1983 a classified program was initiated in the US intelligence community to reverse the US declining economic and military competitiveness. The program, Project Socrates, used all source intelligence to review competitiveness worldwide for all forms of competition to determine the source of the US decline. What Project Socrates determined was that technology exploitation is the foundation of all competitive advantage and that the source of the US declining competitiveness was the fact that decision-making through the US both in the private and public sectors had switched from decision making that was based on technology exploitation (i.e., technology-based planning) to decision making that was based on money exploitation (i.e., economic-based planning) at the end of World War II.

Technology is properly defined as any application of science to accomplish a function. The science can be leading edge or well established and the function can have high visibility or be significantly more mundane but it is all technology, and its exploitation is the foundation of all competitive advantage.

Technology-based planning is what was used to build the US industrial giants before WWII (e.g., Dow, DuPont, GM) and it what was used to transform the US into a superpower. It was not economic-based planning.

Project Socrates determined that to rebuild US competitiveness, decision making through out the US had to readopt technology-based planning. Project Socrates also determined that countries like China and India had continued executing technology-based (while the US took its detour into economic-based) planning, and as a result had considerable advanced the process and were using it to build themselves into superpowers. To rebuild US competitiveness the US decision-makers needed adopt a form of technology-based planning that was far more advanced than that used by China and India.

Project Socrates determined that technology-based planning makes an evolutionary leap forward every few hundred years and the next evolutionary leap, the Automated Innovation Revolution, was poised to occur. In the Automated Innovation Revolution the process for determining how to acquire and utilize technology for a competitive advantage (which includes R&D) is automated so that it can be executed with unprecedented speed, efficiency and agility.

Project Socrates developed the means for automated innovation so that the US could lead the Automated Innovation Revolution in order to rebuild and maintain the country's economic competitiveness for many generations.

Other animal species

right|thumbnail|This adult gorilla uses a branch as a walking stick to gauge the water's depth; an example of technology usage by primates. The use of basic technology is also a feature of other animal species apart from humans. These include primates such as chimpanzees, some dolphin communities, and crows. Considering a more generic perspective of technology as ethology of active environmental conditioning and control, we can also refer to animal examples such as beavers and their dams, or bees and their honeycombs.

The ability to make and use tools was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus Homo. However, the discovery of tool construction among chimpanzees and related primates has discarded the notion of the use of technology as unique to humans. For example, researchers have observed wild chimpanzees utilising tools for foraging: some of the tools used include leaf sponges, termite fishing probes, pestles and levers. West African chimpanzees also use stone hammers and anvils for cracking nuts, as do capuchin monkeys of Boa Vista, Brazil.

Future technology

Theories of technology often attempt to predict the future of technology based on the high technology and science of the time.

See also

Bernard Stiegler

Golden hammer

Critique of technology

History of science and technology

Knowledge economy

Lewis Mumford

Luddite

Niche construction

Technology assessment

Timeline of historic inventions

Technological convergence

Technology and society

Technology tree

-ology

Science and technology

Science and technology in Argentina

Technological superpowers

Theories and concepts in technology

Appropriate technology

Diffusion of innovations

Paradigm

Philosophy of technology

Posthumanism

Precautionary principle

Strategy of technology

Techno-progressivism

Technocentrism

Technocracy

Technocriticism

Technological evolution

Technological determinism

Technological nationalism

Technology readiness level

Technological singularity

Technological society

Technorealism

Technological revival

Transhumanism

Technology Management

Economics of technology

Technocracy (bureaucratic)

Technocapitalism

Technological diffusion

Technology acceptance model

Technology lifecycle

Technology transfer

Energy accounting

Nanosocialism

Post-scarcity

Technology journalism

The Verge

Engadget

TechCrunch

Wired (magazine)

References

Further reading

.

Frank Popper (2007) ''From Technological to Virtual Art'', Leonardo Books, MIT Press

Charlie Gere (2005) ''Art, Time and Technology: Histories of the Disappearing Body'', Berg

Kevin Kelly. ''What Technology Wants''. New York, Viking Press, October 14, 2010, hardcover, 416 pages. ISBN 9780670022151

External links

W5H of Technology Technology for Kids

Science and Technology in the Southern world

RedHerring.com ~ The Business of Technology

WiTEC - The European Association for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)

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Name	Shanghai
Official name	Municipality of Shanghai •
Native name
Settlement type	Municipality
Total type	Municipality
Map caption	Location of Shanghai Municipality within China
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates region	CN-31
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	People's Republic of China
Established title	Settled
Established date	5th–7th century
Established title1	Incorporated - Town
Established date1	751
Established title2	- County
Established date2	1292
Established title3	- Municipality
Established date3	7 July 1927
Parts type	Divisions - County-level - Township-level
Parts	16 districts, 1 county210 towns and subdistricts
Government type	Municipality
Leader title	CPC Ctte Secretary
Leader name	Yu Zhengsheng
Leader title1	Mayor
Leader name1	Han Zheng
Area total km2	6340.5
Area water km2	697
Area footnotes
Elevation m	4
Elevation footnotes
Population total	23019148
Population as of	2010
Population density km2	auto
Population demonym	Shanghainese
Timezone	China standard time
Utc offset	+8
Postal code type	Postal code
Postal code	200000 – 202100
Area code	21
Blank name	GDP
Blank info	2010
Blank1 name	- Total
Blank1 info	CNY 1.687 trillion US$ 256.3 billion (9th)
Blank2 name	- Per capita
Blank2 info	CNY 73,287 US$ 11,134 (1st)
Blank3 name	- Growth
Blank3 info	9.9%
Blank4 name	HDI (2008)
Blank4 info	0.908 (1st) – very high
Blank5 name	Licence plate prefixes
Blank5 info	沪A, B, D, E, F,G ,H, J, K沪C (outer suburbs)
Blank6 name	City flower
Blank6 info	Yulan magnolia
Website	www.shanghai.gov.cn }}

Shanghai (; Shanghainese: Zånhae ; Mandarin pinyin: Shànghǎi ) is one of the largest cities by population in the People's Republic of China, and the world. The city is located in eastern China, at the middle portion of the Chinese coast, and sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Due to its rapid growth over the last two decades it has again become a global city, exerting influence over finance, commerce, fashion, technology and culture.

Once a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and was one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city then flourished as a centre of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, the city's international influence declined. In 1990, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city. Shanghai is now aiming to be an international shipping centre in the future, and is one of the world's major financial centres.

Shanghai is also a popular tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as The Bund, City God Temple and Yuyuan Garden, as well as the extensive and growing Pudong skyline. It is described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of mainland China.

Etymology and names

The two Chinese characters in the city's name are ("above") and ("sea"), that together mean 'Upper Sea'. The earliest occurrence of this name dates from the Song Dynasty (11th century), at which time there was already a river confluence and a town with this name in the area. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be interpreted, but official local histories have consistently said that it signifies 'The upper ''reaches'' of the sea'. Due to the changing coastline, Chinese historians have concluded that in the Tang Dynasty Shanghai was literally on the sea, hence the origin of the name. A more poetic name for Shanghai switches the order of the two characters, "", and is often used for terms related to Shanghainese art and culture.

Shanghai is commonly abbreviated in Chinese to "". As it is also an official abbreviation, this character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today. The name "沪" is derived from ''Hù Dú'' ( / 滬瀆), the ancient name for the lower section of the Suzhou Creek as it enters the sea, the same section that is today regarded as the lower section of the Huangpu River. The character "沪" (Hù) is often combined with "松" (Sōng) to form the name ''Songhu'' (). ''Sōng'' comes from another ancient name for the Suzhou Creek, the Song River, after which the town Songjiang is named. For example, the 1937 Battle of Shanghai is better known in Chinese as the Battle of Songhu. A second abbreviation for Shanghai is "" (''Shēn''), derived from the name of ''Chunshen Jun ''(), a nobleman and locally revered hero of the Chu Kingdom in the third century BC whose territory included the Shanghai area. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use this character in their names. Shanghai is also commonly called ''Shēnchéng'' (, "[Walled] city of Shēn"). The city has also had various nicknames in English, including "Paris of the East".

Another early name for Shanghai was Huating (). In 751 AD, during the mid-Tang Dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang, the first county-level administration within modern-day Shanghai. Today, Huating is most often encountered as the name of a four-star hotel in the city. From the Yuan Dynasty in 1292 until Shanghai officially became a city for the first time in 1927, the area was designated merely as a county (縣) administered by the Songjiang prefecture.

Two important events helped promote Shanghai's development in the Ming Dynasty. A city wall was built for the first time in 1554 to protect the town from raids by Japanese pirates. It measured 10 metres high and 5 kilometres in circumference. During the Wanli reign (1573–1620), Shanghai received an important psychological boost from the erection of a City God Temple (城隍庙) in 1602. This honour was usually reserved for places with the status of a city, such as a prefectural capital (府) not normally given to a mere county town (镇), as Shanghai was. It probably reflected the town's economic importance, as opposed to its low political status.

International attention to Shanghai grew in the 19th century due to its economic and trade potential at the Yangtze River. During the First Opium War (1839–1842), British forces temporarily held the city. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, opening the treaty ports, Shanghai included, for international trade. The Treaty of the Bogue signed in 1843, and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia signed in 1844 together allowed foreign nations to visit and trade on Chinese soil, and the start of the foreign concessions.

In 1854, the Shanghai Municipal Council was created to manage the foreign settlements. In 1860–1862, during the Taiping Rebellion Shanghai was twice attacked by the rebel army. In 1863, the British settlement, located to the south of Suzhou creek (Huangpu district), and the American settlement, to the north of Suzhou creek (Hongkou district), joined in order to form the International Settlement. The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and maintained its own French Concession, located to the south of the International Settlement, which still exists today as a popular attraction. Citizens of many countries and all continents came to Shanghai to live and work during the ensuing decades; those who stayed for long periods – some for generations – called themselves "Shanghailanders". In the 1920s and 1930s, almost 20,000 White Russians and Russian Jews fled the newly established Soviet Union and took up residence in Shanghai. These Shanghai Russians constituted the second-largest foreign community. By 1932, Shanghai had become the world's fifth largest city and home to 70,000 foreigners. In the 1930s, some 30,000 Jewish refugees from Europe arrived in the city.

The Sino-Japanese War concluded with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which elevated Japan to become another foreign power in Shanghai. Japan built the first factories in Shanghai, which were soon copied by other foreign powers. Shanghai was then the most important financial centre in the Far East. All this international activity gave Shanghai the nickname "the Great Athens of China" Under the Republic of China (1911–1949), Shanghai's political status was finally raised to that of a municipality on 14 July 1927. Although the territory of the foreign concessions was excluded from their control, this new Chinese municipality still covered an area of 828.8 square kilometers, including the modern-day districts of Baoshan, Yangpu, Zhabei, Nanshi, and Pudong. Headed by a Chinese mayor and municipal council, the new city governments first task was to create a new city-centre in Jiangwan town of Yangpu district, outside the boundaries of the foreign concessions. This new city-centre was planned to include a public museum, library, sports stadium, and city hall.

On 28 January 1932, Japanese forces struck and the Chinese resisted, fighting to a standstill; a ceasefire was brokered in May. The Battle of Shanghai in 1937 resulted in the occupation of the Chinese administered parts of Shanghai outside of the International Settlement and the French Concession. The International Settlement was occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and remained occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945, during which time war crimes were committed.

On 27 May 1949, the People's Liberation Army took control of Shanghai, which was one of only three former Republic of China (ROC) municipalities not merged into neighbouring provinces over the next decade (the others being Beijing and Tianjin). Shanghai underwent a series of changes in the boundaries of its subdivisions, especially in the next decade. After 1949, most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong, as part of an exodus of foreign investment due to the Communist victory.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Shanghai became an industrial centre and centre for radical leftism; the leftist Jiang Qing and her three cohorts, together the Gang of Four, were based in the city. Yet, even during the most tumultuous times of the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai was able to maintain high economic productivity and relative social stability. In most of the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in order to funnel wealth to the rural areas, Shanghai has been a comparatively heavy contributor of tax revenue to the central government. This came at the cost of severely crippling Shanghai's infrastructural and capital development. Its importance to the fiscal well-being of the central government also denied it economic liberalisations begun in 1978. Shanghai was finally permitted to initiate economic reforms in 1991, starting the massive development still seen today and the birth of Lujiazui in Pudong.

Geography

Shanghai sits on the Yangtze River Delta on China's eastern coast, and is roughly equidistant from Beijing and Hong Kong. The municipality as a whole consists of a peninsula between the Yangtze and Hangzhou Bay, mainland China's second-largest island Chongming, and a number of smaller islands. It is bordered on the north and west by Jiangsu Province, on the south by Zhejiang Province, and on the east by the East China Sea. The city proper is bisected by the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The historic centre of the city, the Puxi area, is located on the western side of the Huangpu, while the newly developed Pudong, containing the central financial district Lujiazui, was developed on the eastern bank.

The vast majority of Shanghai's land area is flat, apart from a few hills in the southwest corner, with an average elevation of . The city's location on the flat alluvial plain has meant that new skyscrapers must be built with deep concrete piles to stop them from sinking into the soft ground. The highest point is at the peak of Dajinshan Island at . The city has many rivers, canals, streams and lakes and is known for its rich water resources as part of the Taihu drainage area.

Climate

Shanghai has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') and experiences four distinct seasons. Winters are chilly and damp, and cold northwesterly winds from Siberia can cause nighttime temperatures to drop below freezing, although most years there are only one or two days of snowfall. Summers are hot and humid, with an average of 8.7 days exceeding annually; occasional downpours or freak thunderstorms can be expected. The city is also susceptible to typhoons in summer and the beginning of autumn, none of which in recent years has caused considerable damage. The most pleasant seasons are Spring, although changeable and often rainy, and Autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. The city averages in January and in July, for an annual mean of . Shanghai experiences on average 1,878 hours of sunshine per year, with the hottest temperature ever recorded at , and the lowest at . The average frost-free period is 276 days.

Politics

The politics of Shanghai is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in China. The Mayor of Shanghai is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Shanghai.

Administrative divisions

Shanghai is administratively equal to a province and is divided into 17 county-level divisions: 16 districts and one county. Even though every district has its own urban core, the real city centre is between Bund to the east, Nanjing Rd to the north, Old City Temple and Huaihai Road to the south. Prominent central business areas include Lujiazui on the east bank of the Huangpu River, and The Bund and Hongqiao areas in the west bank of the Huangpu River. The city hall and major administration units are located in Huangpu District, which also serve as a commercial area, including the famous Nanjing Road. Other major commercial areas include Xintiandi and the classy Huaihai Road (previously ''Avenue Joffre'') in Luwan district and Xujiahui (formerly rendered in English as ''Zikawei'', reflecting the Shanghainese pronunciation) in Xuhui District. Many universities in Shanghai are located in residential areas of Yangpu District and Putuo District.

Eight of the districts govern Puxi (literally ''Huangpu River west''), or the older part of urban Shanghai on the west bank of the Huangpu River. These eight districts are collectively referred to as Shanghai Proper (上海市区) or the core city (市中心):

Huangpu District (黄浦区 Huángpǔ Qū) – merged with Nanshi District in 2000, and Luwan District in 2011

Xuhui District (徐汇区 Xúhuì Qū)

Changning District (长宁区 Chángníng Qū)

Jing'an District (静安区 Jìng'ān Qū)

Putuo District (普陀区 Pǔtuó Qū)

Zhabei District (闸北区 Zháběi Qū)

Hongkou District (虹口区 Hóngkǒu Qū)

Yangpu District (杨浦区 Yángpǔ Qū)

Pudong (literally ''Huangpu River east''), or the newer part of urban and suburban Shanghai on the east bank of the Huangpu River, is governed by:

Pudong New District (浦东新区 Pǔdōng Xīn Qū) – Chuansha County until 1992, merged with Nanhui District in 2009

Seven of the districts govern suburbs, satellite towns, and rural areas further away from the urban core:

Baoshan District (宝山区 Bǎoshān Qū) – Baoshan County until 1988

Minhang District (闵行区 Mǐnháng Qū) – Shanghai County until 1992

Jiading District (嘉定区 Jiādìng Qū) – Jiading County until 1992

Jinshan District (金山区 Jīnshān Qū) – Jinshan County until 1997

Songjiang District (松江区 Sōngjiāng Qū) – Songjiang County until 1998

Qingpu District (青浦区 Qīngpǔ Qū) – Qingpu County until 1999

Fengxian District (奉贤区 Fèngxián Qū) – Fengxian County until 2001

Chongming Island, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze, is governed by:

Chongming County (崇明县 Chóngmíng Xiàn)

As of 2009, these county-level divisions are further divided into the following 210 township-level divisions: 109 towns, 2 townships, 99 subdistricts. Those are in turn divided into the following village-level divisions: 3,661 neighborhood committees and 1,704 village committees.

Economy

Shanghai is the commercial and financial centre of mainland China. It was the largest and most prosperous city in the Far East during the 1930s, and rapid re-development began in 1990s. This is exemplified by the Pudong District, which became a pilot area for integrated economic reforms.

Today, Shanghai is again one of the most prosperous cities in the world. Its cosmopolitan character, sophisticated and affluent consumers, and highly educated skilled labor force make it highly attractive to overseas investors. Shanghai has recorded double-digit growth for 15 consecutive years since 1992 to become the center of finance and trade in new China. Shanghai is now aiming to be a global finance hub and international shipping center in the near future.

In 2010, Shanghai's total GDP grew to 1.687 trillion RMB (US$256.3 billion) with GDP per capita of 76,000 RMB ($11,540). The three largest service industries are financial services, retail, and real estate. The manufacturing and agricultural sectors accounted for 39.9 percent and 0.7 percent of the total output respectively. Average annual disposable income of Shanghai residents, based on the first three quarters of 2009, was 21,871 RMB.

Located at the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai has the world’s busiest container port, which handled 29.05 million TEUs in 2010.

Shanghai was the leading financial centre of Far East in the 1930s and the city has a solid foundation in the financial services industry. The city has set up a complete financial institution, including commercial banks, securities companies, insurance companies, fund management companies, trust companies, futures companies and financial leasing companies. By the end of 2009, there were 787 financial institutions, of which 170 were foreign-invested. In 2009, the Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked third among worldwide stock exchanges in terms of trading volume and sixth in terms of the total capitalization of listed companies, and the trading volume of six key commodities including rubber, copper and zinc on the Shanghai Futures Exchange all ranked first across the world.

Shanghai is now ranked fifth in the latest edition of the Global Financial Centres Index published by the City of London.

Shanghai has constantly optimized and upgraded its industrial structure as well and sped up the development of its advanced manufacture sector. Shanghai plays a key role in China’s heavy industries. A large number of industrial zones, including Shanghai Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jinqiao Export Economic Processing Zone, Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Shanghai Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone, are backbones of Shanghai's secondary industry. Heavy industries accounted for 78% of the gross industrial output in 2009. China’s largest steelmaker Baosteel Group and Jiangnan Shipyard, one of China's oldest shipbuilders are both located in Shanghai. Auto manufacture is another important industry. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) ("SAIC" for short) is one of the top 3 automotive corporations in China. The company has a strategic partnership with Volkswagen and General Motors.

Demographics

Population

According to China’s 2010 census, the resident population of Shanghai stood at 23,019,148 in 2010. Based on the population of its total administrative area, Shanghai is the second largest of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the People's Republic of China, behind Chongqing.

Municipality	Population	Rank
Chongqing	28,846,170	1
Shanghai	23,019,148	2
Beijing	19,612,368	3
Tianjin	12,938,224	4

Nevertheless, Shanghai is frequently listed as China’s largest city, and even as "one of the largest cities in the world." This title is given by scholarly papers and encyclopedias. A recent edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica would give Shanghai only the title "China’s most populous urban area." Chongqing likewise has its supporters. Time Magazine called it "the largest city not only in China but in the world." Many publications call Chongqing "China’s largest city,", or even "the biggest city you've never heard of."

Books and scholarly papers have been written about whether Shanghai or Chongqing can claim the title "China’s largest city." The ranking changes when different criteria are applied. Researchers conclude that "confusion and contradictions surrounding the size of the population or number of inhabitants of Chinese cities abound in both the popular media and in more serious academic and official publications." Researchers state that "lists of the world’s largest urban areas according to population size are surprisingly inconsistent in standard reference sources," making it virtually impossible to unambiguously decide which city is the largest.

One such reference list names Chongqing as China’s largest city, but it also ranks Shanghai as the world’s largest city without counting surrounding suburbs. The decision whether Shanghai or Chongqing is China’s largest city is left as an exercise to the reader.

Population Development

The 2010 China Population Census put Shanghai's total resident population at 23,019,148 people, as of 1 November 2010. The population rose 37.53 percent from 16,737,734 in the year 2000, an increase of 6,281,414 people over 10 years.

The 2010 resident population of Shanghai includes 8,977,000 temporary residents, sometimes characterized as "non-locals, mainly migrant workers" sometimes as "residents from other provinces or cities," amounting to 39 percent of Shanghai's total population. Since the last census in 2000, this group grew by 159.08 percent. Shanghai has the lowest fertility rate in China. By the early 1990s, Shanghai's fertility sunk below the replacement level.

As of the 2010 census, 8.63 percent of Shanghai's population were under the age of 14, the number of residents over 65 stood at 10.12 percent, both trending down compared to 2000.

98.8 percent of Shanghai's residents are of the Han Chinese ethnicity, while 1.2 percent belong to various minority groups. However, the minority population has grown by 165.54 percent since 2000, much faster than the overall population growth.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, there were 152,050 officially registered foreigners in Shanghai as of 2009. This is an increase of 50 percent from 2005, when the registered foreigner population was 100,011. The nationalities and population of the three largest registered foreigner groups are: Japanese (31,490), American (21,284) and Korean (20,700). Some foreign expatriates are staying in Shanghai as long-term settlers, renewing Shanghai's reputation as China's global city. In addition, there are a large number of people from Taiwan living within the municipality (2010 estimates vary around 700,000).

The life expectancy of Shanghai's registered residents in 2010 reached 82.13 years (79.82 for men and 84.44 for women), the highest in China. In the same year, the maternal mortality rate in Shanghai was 9.61 per 100,000, while the infant mortality rate dropped to 5.97 per 1,000 from 6.58 in 2009 – all for the registered population.

Religion

Due to its cosmopolitan history, Shanghai has a rich blend of religious heritage as shown by the religious buildings and institutions still scattered around the city. Taoism has a presence in Shanghai in the form of several temples, including the City God Temple, at the heart of the old city, and a temple dedicated to the Three Kingdoms general Guan Yu. The Wenmiao is a temple dedicated to Confucius. Buddhism has had a presence in Shanghai since ancient times. Longhua temple, the largest temple in Shanghai, and Jing'an Temple, were first founded in the Three Kingdoms period. Another important temple is the Jade Buddha Temple, which is named after a large statue of Buddha carved out of jade in the temple. In recent decades, dozens of modern temples have been built throughout the city. A predominant religion in Shanghai is Mahayana Buddhism, and Taoism is also followed by many Shanghai residents. Islam came into Shanghai 700 years ago and a mosque was built in 1295 in Songjiang. In 1843, a teachers' college was also set up. The Xiaotaoyuan Mosque is located at 52 Xiaotaoyuan Lane,East Fuxing Road, South District. This is where the Shanghai Muslim Association is also located, which has a reputation known throughout the world. Shanghai has the highest Catholic percentage in Mainland China (2003). Among Catholic churches, St Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui is one of the largest, while She Shan Basilica is the only active pilgrimage site in China. communities. Christianity in Shanghai includes Eastern Orthodox minorities and, since 1996, registered Christian Protestant churches. During World War II thousands of Jews descended upon Shanghai in an effort to flee Hitler’s regime. The Jews lived side-by-side in a designated area called Shanghai Ghetto and formed a vibrant community centered on the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, which is preserved remnant of this portion of Shanghai’s complex religious past.

Education

Shanghai has one of the most developed education systems in China. It is the first city where the 9-year compulsory education is implemented in the country. The 2010 census shows that among Shanghai's total population, 22.0% had college education, double the level from 2000, while 21.0% had high school, 36.5% middle school, and 1.35% primary school education. 2.74% of residents 15 and above were illiterate.

Shanghai has more than 930 kindergartens, 1,200 primary and 850 middle schools. Over 760,000 middle schools students and 871,000 primary school students are taught by 76,000 and 64,000 teaching staffs respectively.

Shanghai is also a major centre of higher education teaching and research with over 30 universities and colleges (List of universities and colleges in Shanghai). A number of country's most prestigious universities are based in Shanghai, including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, East China Normal University, Shanghai International Studies University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

In 2010, Shanghai took the top spot in the latest round of the most comprehensive assessment of the world’s state schools. According to Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, Shanghai students scored highest in every aspect (Maths, Reading and Science) in the world. The study also indicates that public-funded schools in Shanghai have the highest educational quality around the world.

Transport

Public transportation

Shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on metros, buses and taxis. Payment of all these public transportation tools can be made by using the Shanghai Public Transportation Card.

Shanghai's rapid transit system, Shanghai Metro, incorporates both subway and light railway lines and extends to every core urban district as well as neighbouring suburban districts. As of 2010, there are twelve metro lines (including the Shanghai Maglev Train), 273 stations and over 420 km of tracks in operation, making it the longest network in the world. On 22 October 2010, it set a record of daily ridership of 7.548 million. The fare depends on the length of travel distance starting from 3RMB.

Shanghai also has the world's most extensive bus system with nearly one thousand bus lines, operated by numerous transportation companies. Bus fare normally costs 2 RMB.

Taxis are plentiful in Shanghai and the flag-down fare is ¥14 (including ¥1 fuel surcharge) which covers the first 3 kilometers (¥18 between 11:00 pm and 5:00 am). Extra kilometers cost ¥2.4 each (¥3.2 between 11:00 pm and 5:00 am).

Roads

Shanghai is a major hub of China's expressway network. Many national expressways (prefixed with G) pass through or terminate in Shanghai, including G2 Beijing−Shanghai Expressway (overlapping G42 Shanghai-Chengdu), G15 Shenyang-Haikou, G40 Shanghai-Xi'an, G50 Shanghai-Chongqing, G60 Shanghai-Kunming (overlapping G92 Shanghai-Ningbo), and G1501 Shanghai Ring Expressway. In addition, there are also numerous municipal expressways prefixed with S (S1, S2, S20, etc.). In the city-center, there are several elevated expressways to lessen traffic pressure on surface streets, but traffic in and around Shanghai is often heavy and traffic jams are commonplace during rush hour. There are bicycle lanes separate from car traffic on many surface streets, but bicycles and motorcycles are banned from most main roads including the elevated expressways.

Private car ownership in Shanghai has been rapidly increasing in recent years, but a new private car cannot be driven until the owner buys a plate in the monthly private car license plate auction. Around 8,000 license plates are auctioned each month and the average price is about 45,291 RMB (5,201 Euro). The purpose of this policy is to limit the growth of automobile traffic and to alleviate congestion.

Railway

Shanghai has three major railway stations: Shanghai Railway Station, Shanghai South Railway Station, and Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station. All three are connected to the metro network and serve as hubs in the railway network of China. Two main railways terminate in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway from Beijing, and Huhang Railway from Hangzhou. Hongqiao Station also serves as the main Shanghai terminus of three high speed rail lines: the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway, the Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway, and the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway, China's most important high speed rail line.

Air

Shanghai is one of the leading air transport gateways in Asia. The city has two commercial airports: Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. Pudong Airport is the main international airport, while Hongqiao Airport mainly operates domestic flights with limited short-haul international flights. In 2010 the two airports served 71.7 million passengers (Pudong 40.4 million, Hongqiao 31.3 million), and handled 3.7 million tons of cargo (Pudong 3.22 million tons, Hongqiao 480 thousand tons).

Architecture

Shanghai has a rich collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles. The Bund, located by the bank of the Huangpu River, contains a rich collection of early 20th-century architecture, ranging in style from neoclassical HSBC Building to the art deco Sassoon House. A number of areas in the former foreign concessions are also well-preserved, the most notable ones being the French Concession. Shanghai has one of the worlds largest number of Art Deco buildings as a result of the construction boom during the 1920s and 1930s. One of the most famous architects working in Shanghai was László Hudec, an Hungarian-Slovak architect who lived in the city between 1918–1947. Some of his most notable Art Deco buildings include the Park Hotel and the Grand Theater. Other prominent architects who contributed to the Art Deco style are Parker & Palmer, who designed the Peace Hotel, Metropole Hotel, and the Broadway Mansions, and Austrian architect GH Gonda who designed the Capital Theatre. The Bunds first revitalisation started in 1986 with a new promenade by the Architect Snoeren, the completion was in the mid-1990s.

Despite rampant redevelopment, the old city still retains some buildings of a traditional style, such as the Yuyuan Garden, an elaborate traditional garden in the Jiangnan style.

In recent years, a large number of architecturally distinctive and even eccentric buildings have sprung up throughout Shanghai. Notable examples of contemporary architecture include the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Grand Theatre in the People's Square precinct and Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

One uniquely Shanghainese cultural element is the shikumen (石库门) residences, which are two- or three-story townhouses, with the front yard protected by a high brick wall. Each residence is connected and arranged in straight alleys, known as a ''lòngtang'' (弄堂), pronounced ''longdang'' in Shanghainese. The entrance to each alley is usually surmounted by a stylistic stone arch. The whole resembles terrace houses or townhouses commonly seen in Anglo-American countries, but distinguished by the tall, heavy brick wall in front of each house. The name "shikumen" means "stone storage door", referring to the strong gateway to each house.

The shikumen is a cultural blend of elements found in Western architecture with traditional Lower Yangtze (Jiangnan) Chinese architecture and social behavior. All traditional Chinese dwellings had a courtyard, and the shikumen was no exception. Yet, to compromise with its urban nature, it was much smaller and provided an "interior haven" to the commotions in the streets, allowing for raindrops to fall and vegetation to grow freely within a residence. The courtyard also allowed sunlight and adequate ventilation into the rooms.

The city also has some beautiful examples of Soviet neoclassical architecture. These buildings were mostly erected during the period from the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 until the Sino-Soviet Split in the late 1960s. During this decade, large numbers of Soviet experts, including architects, poured into China to aid the country in the construction of a communist state. Examples of Soviet neoclassical architecture in Shanghai include what is today the Shanghai International Exhibition Centre. Beijing, the nation's capital, displays an even greater array of this particular type of architecture.

The Pudong district of Shanghai displays a wide range of skyscrapers, many of which rank among the tallest in the world. The most prominent examples include the Jin Mao Tower and the taller Shanghai World Financial Centre, which at 492 metres tall is the tallest skyscraper in mainland China and ranks third in the world. The distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower, at 468 metres, is located nearby, and its lower sphere is now available for living quarters. Another highrise in the Pudong area is the newly finished Development Tower, standing at 269 meters.

Since 2008, Shanghai has boasted more free-standing buildings above 400m (3) than any other city. In the future, the Shanghai Tower, slated for completion in 2014, will be the tallest building in China. With a height of 632 metres (2074 feet), the building will have 127 floors and a total floor area of 380,000 sqm. The Shanghai Tower began construction in 2008.

Environment

Parks and resorts

Shanghai's parks offer some reprieve from the urban jungle. Due to the scarcity of play space for children, nearly all parks have a children's section. Fuxing Park, in the former French Concession of Shanghai, features formal French-style gardens and is surrounded by high end bars and cafes. Zhongshan Park in northwestern central Shanghai is famous for its monument of Chopin, the tallest statue dedicated to the composer in the world. Built in 1914 as Jessfield Park, it once contained the campus of St. John's University, Shanghai's first international college; today, it is known for its extensive rose and peony gardens, a large children's play area, and as the location of an important transfer station on the city's metro system. One of the newest is in the Xujiahui area – Xujiahui Park, built in 1999 on the former grounds of the Great Chinese Rubber Works Factory and the EMI Recording Studio (now La Villa Rouge restaurant). The park has a man-made lake with a sky bridge running across the park, and offers a pleasant respite for Xujiahui shoppers.

The Shanghai Disneyland Resort Project was approved by the government on 4 November 2009. It is currently under construction. The resort is planned to be operational by 2013. A $4.4 billion theme park and resort in Pudong will have a castle that will be the biggest among Disney's resorts.

Environmental protection

Public awareness of the environment is growing, and the city is investing in a number of environmental protection projects. A 10-year, US$1 billion cleanup of Suzhou Creek, which runs through the city-centre, was expected to be finished in 2008, and the government also provides incentives for transportation companies to invest in LPG buses and taxis. Air pollution in Shanghai is low compared to other Chinese cities, but the rapid development over the past decades means it is still high on worldwide standards. The government has moved almost all factories within downtown to either outskirts of Shanghai or the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces in the last two decades. In addition, several parks have been built in the city. As a result, Shanghai's air quality has been steadily improving since 1990s.

Culture

Because of Shanghai's status as the cultural and economic centre of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century, it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in China. It was in Shanghai, for example, that the first motor car was driven and the first train tracks and modern sewers were laid. It was also the intellectual battleground between socialist writers who concentrated on critical realism, which was pioneered by Lu Xun (鲁迅), Mao Dun (茅盾), Nien Cheng and the famous French novel by André Malraux, ''Man's Fate'', and the more "bourgeois", more romantic and aesthetically inclined writers, such as Shi Zhecun (施蛰存), Shao Xunmei (邵洵美), Ye Lingfeng (葉靈鳳) and Eileen Chang (张爱玲).

Language

Most Shanghai residents are the descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, regions whose population, in general, also speak Wu Chinese. In the past decades, many migrants from other areas of China not mentioned above have come to Shanghai for work. They often cannot speak the local language and therefore use Mandarin as a lingua franca.

The vernacular language is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese, while the official language nationwide is Mandarin. The local language is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin, and is thus an inseparable part of the Shanghainese identity. The modern Shanghainese language is based on the Suzhou dialect of Wu, the prestige dialect of Wu spoken within the Chinese city of Shanghai prior to the modern expansion of the city, the Ningbo dialect of Wu, and the dialect of Shanghai's traditional areas now within the Hongkou, Baoshan and Pudong districts, which is simply called "the local tongue" (). It is influenced to a lesser extent by the languages of other nearby regions from which large numbers of people have migrated to Shanghai since the 20th century, and includes a significant number of terms borrowed from European languages. The prevalence of Mandarin fluency is generally higher for those born after 1949 than those born before, while the prevalence of English fluency is higher for people who received their secondary and tertiary education before 1949 than those who did so after 1949 and before the 1990s.

Museums

Shanghai boasts several museums of regional and national importance. The Shanghai Museum of art and history has one of the best collections of Chinese historical artifacts in the world, including important archaeological finds since 1949. The Shanghai Art Museum, located in the former Shanghai Race Club building in the People's Square, is a major art museum holding both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The Shanghai Natural History Museum is a large scale natural history museum. In addition, there is a variety of smaller, specialist museums, some housed in important historical sites such as the site of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Cinema

Besides literature, Shanghai was also the birthplace of Chinese cinema and theater. China’s first short film, ''The Difficult Couple'' (難夫難妻, Nanfu Nanqi, 1913), and the country’s first fictional feature film, ''An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather'' (孤兒救祖記, Gu'er jiu zuji, 1923) were both produced in Shanghai. These two films were very influential, and established Shanghai as the centre of Chinese film-making. Shanghai’s film industry went on to blossom during the early 1930s, generating Marilyn Monroe-like stars such as Zhou Xuan. Another film star, Jiang Qing, went on to become Madame Mao Zedong. The talent and passion of Shanghainese filmmakers following World War II and the Communist revolution in China contributed enormously to the development of the Hong Kong film industry. Many aspects of Shanghainese popular culture ("Shanghainese Pops") were transferred to Hong Kong by the numerous Shanghainese emigrants and refugees after the Communist Revolution. The movie ''In the Mood for Love'', which was directed by Wong Kar-wai (a native Shanghainese himself), depicts one slice of the displaced Shanghainese community in Hong Kong and the nostalgia for that era, featuring 1940s music by Zhou Xuan.

Arts

The Shanghai School (海上画派, Haishang Huapai, which is shortened to 海派, Haipai) is a very important Chinese school of traditional arts during the Qing Dynasty and the whole of the twentieth century. Under efforts of masters from this school, traditional Chinese art reached another climax and continued to the present in forms of the "Chinese painting" (中国画) or ''guohua'' (国画) for short. The Shanghai School challenged and broke the literati tradition of Chinese art, while also paying technical homage to the ancient masters and improving on existing traditional techniques. Members of this school were themselves educated literati who had come to question their very status and the purpose of art, and had anticipated the impending modernisation of Chinese society. In an era of rapid social change, works from the Shanghai School were widely innovative and diverse, and often contained thoughtful yet subtle social commentary. The most well-known figures from this school are Qi Baishi (齊白石), Ren Xiong (任熊), Ren Yi (任伯年), Zhao Zhiqian (赵之谦), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), Sha Menghai (沙孟海, calligraphist), Pan Tianshou (潘天寿), Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) and Wang Zhen (Wang Yiting) (王震). In literature, the term was used in the 1930s by some May Fourth Movement intellectuals, notable ones being Zhou Zuoren and Shen Congwen, as a derogatory label for the literature produced in Shanghai at the time. They argued that so-called Shanghai School literature was merely commercial and therefore did not advance social progress. This became known as the ''Jingpai'' (Beijing School) versus ''Haipai'' (Shanghai School) debate.

Songjiang School (淞江派) is a small painting school during the Ming Dynasty. It is commonly considered as a further development of the Wu School, or Wumen School (吴门画派), in the then cultural centre of the region, Suzhou. Huating School (华亭派) was another important art school during the middle to late Ming Dynasty. Its main achievements were in traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and poetry, and especially famous for its Renwen painting (人文画). Dong Qichang (董其昌) is one of the masters from this school.

Fashion

Other Shanghainese cultural artifacts include the cheongsam (Shanghainese: ''zansae''), a modernisation of the traditional Chinese/Manchurian qipao (). This contrasts sharply with the traditional qipao, which was designed to conceal the figure and be worn regardless of age. The cheongsam went along well with the western overcoat and the scarf, and portrayed a unique East Asian modernity, epitomizing the Shanghainese population in general. As Western fashions changed, the basic cheongsam design changed, too, introducing high-neck sleeveless dresses, bell-like sleeves, and the black lace frothing at the hem of a ball gown. By the 1940s, cheongsams came in transparent black, beaded bodices, matching capes and even velvet. And, later, checked fabrics became also quite common. The 1949 Communist Revolution ended the cheongsam and other fashions in Shanghai. However, the Shanghainese styles have seen a recent revival as stylish party dresses. The fashion industry has been rapidly revitalizing in the past decade. Like Shanghai's architecture, local fashion designers strive to create a fusion of western and traditional designs, often with innovative if uncontroversial results.

Sports

Shanghai is home to several professional football teams, including Shanghai Shenhua of the Chinese Super League, which is one of the China's most popular and most successful football clubs. Shanghai owns a basketball team as well in the Chinese Basketball Association, the Shanghai Sharks, which developed Yao Ming before he entered the NBA. Shanghai also has an ice hockey team, China Dragon, and the baseball team, Shanghai Golden Eagles, which plays in the China Baseball League.

Shanghai is the hometown of many outstanding and well-known Chinese professional athletes, such as the basketball player Yao Ming, the 110-meters hurdler Liu Xiang and the table tennis player Wang Liqin.

Beginning in 2004, Shanghai started hosting Chinese Grand Prix, one round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was staged at the Shanghai International Circuit. In 2010, Shanghai also became the host city of German Touring Car Masters (DTM), which raced in street circuit in Pudong.

Shanghai also holds ATP Masters 1000 tennis series and HSBC Golf Championship every year.

Twin towns – sister cities

Shanghai is twinned with:

Africa

Casablanca, Morocco – ''since 1986'' Alexandria, Egypt – ''1992'' Windhoek, Namibia – ''1995'' Maputo, Mozambique – ''1999'' Algiers, Algeria – ''2003''

Asia

Yokohama, Japan – ''1973'' Osaka, Japan – ''1974'' Osaka Prefecture, Japan – ''1980'' Hamhung, North Korea – ''1982'' Manila, Philippines – ''1983'' Karachi, Pakistan – ''1984'' Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan – ''1986'' Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – ''1990'' Busan, South Korea – ''1993'' Haifa, Israel – ''1993'' Tashkent, Uzbekistan – ''1994'' Aden, Yemen – ''1995'' Chiang Mai, Thailand – ''2000'' Dubai, United Arab Emirates – ''2000'' Colombo, Sri Lanka – ''2003'' Phnom Penh, Cambodia – ''2005'' Nizhnevartovsk, Russia – ''2007'' Herat, Afghanistan – ''2008''

Europe

Milan, Italy – ''1979'' Rotterdam, Netherlands – ''1979'' Zagreb, Croatia – ''1980'' Antwerp, Belgium – ''1984'' Gdańsk, Poland – ''1985'' Piraeus, Greece – ''1985'' Gothenburg, Sweden – ''1986'' Hamburg, Germany – ''1986'' Marseille, France – ''1987'' Saint Petersburg, Russia – ''1988'' Istanbul, Turkey – ''1989'' Cork, Ireland – ''1994'' Porto, Portugal – ''1995'' London, UK – ''1996'' Espoo, Finland – ''1998'' Liverpool, UK – ''1999'' Barcelona, Spain – ''2001'' Oslo, Norway – ''2001'' Constanţa, Romania – ''2002'' Aarhus County, Denmark – ''2003'' Bratislava Region, Slovakia – ''2003'' Lefkosia, Cyprus – ''2004'' Salzburg, Austria – ''2004'' Basel, Switzerland – ''2007'' Borås, Sweden – ''2007'' Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina – ''2008'' Belgrade, Serbia – ''2008'' Yerevan, Armenia – ''2009'' Most, Czech Republic

North America

San Francisco, United States – ''1979'' Chicago, United States – ''1985'' Montreal, Canada – ''1985'' Santiago de Cuba, Cuba – ''1996'' Guadalajara (Jalisco), Mexico – ''1998'' Winston-Salem, United States – ''2006''

Oceania

Dunedin, New Zealand – ''1994'' Port Vila, Vanuatu – ''1994'' Hauraki District, New Zealand – ''2003''

South America

São Paulo, Brazil – ''1988'' Bogotá, Colombia – ''1992'' Rosario, Argentina – ''1997'' Guayaquil, Ecuador – ''2001'' Valparaíso, Chile – ''2001'' Manaus, Brazil – ''2009'' Lima, Peru – ''2010''

See also

List of attractions in Shanghai

List of cities proper by population

List of cities with most skyscrapers

List of five National Central Cities of China

List of economic and technological development zones in Shanghai

List of fiction set in Shanghai

List of films set in Shanghai

List of universities and colleges in Shanghai

Shanghai cuisine

Shanghai International Group

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links

Official Website

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Category:Independent cities Category:Metropolitan areas of China Category:Municipalities of the People's Republic of China Category:Populated coastal places in China Category:Populated places established in the 10th century Category:Port cities and towns in China Category:Treaty of Nanking Category:Yangtze River Delta

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