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China
About Shanghai
Shanghai
was once known as the Paris
of the East during its notorious heydays early to the mid of this century.
This is perhaps the most well known city in China
and now positions herself as the Pearl
of the Orient. With China's
robust economy powering ahead, Shanghai
is riding high on the economic boom with its population of more than 20
million people, including a floating population of more than 3 million makes
it one of the most crowded city in the world.
Shanghai
is actually a port city and is situated on the banks of Yangtze River Delta
and is the largest city in China
and the seventh largest in the world. Huangpu
River
is the most important shipping artery of Shanghai.
Opened to the world as a treaty port in 1842, Shanghai
at that time was not just a city but a divided territory of the French,
British and Americans each claiming their own turfs where their respective
laws and culture were carried out.
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Shanghai
was a city full of nightclubs, gambling dens and opium dens. The rich
people,often gangland chiefs walked the same streets as gamblers, prostitutes
and beggars. Gangland turf grabbing wars and secret society initiated
assassinations were the order of the day then.
Shanghai the modern city
Things have changed a lot since those
turbulent crazy days. Today, the city of Shanghai
is compared Shanghai
to world class cities such as New
York City
and Paris.
The peope of Shanghai,
often called the Shanghainese have a reputation for being sharp minded,
gregarious and business oriented.
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The HuangpuRiver,
which joins Yangtze
River is the cradle Shanghai's
most important building project which is the Pudong New Area. This area is
developed as the financial, economic and commercial center. The area is home
to Shanghai's
stock market building, its international airport, and the world's first
commercial magnetic levitation train.
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Rising from the plains that just not many
years ago were dominated by farmlands is the city's the Oriental
PearlTower.
The tower is designed with a spaceship look alike pillar and is lighted up
gaudily in the night is the tallest man made structure in Asia.
With the the 2010 World Expo coming to Shanghai,
massive construction contributes to the bustling activities in Pudong.
Shanghai's
economic open policy has also made the city a magnet for many foreign
investors. As foreign money is pouring in especially to Pudong, Shanghai
has again become home to tens of thousands of expatriate foreigners not unlike
its earlier days except that the foreigners today are not the colonial masters
of the old.
Because of this foreign influx, Shanghai
became a ravenous consumer center. Domestic stores stands side by side with
big consumer names like Christian Dior and Ralph Lauren. Affluence is visibly
seen everywhere. Businessmen zip around town in their brand new Mercedes and
Lexus cars. The youths of Shanghai party until the wee small hours of the
morning dancing the night away in mega huge dance clubs.
So if you like your vacation holiday to
be in a city with rich cultural heritage and yet want to live it up. Then the
city of Shanghai could be the tourist destination of your choice.
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