Shanghai is the 2nd largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with a population of more than 19 million people.

While Beijing is considered the educational centre of China, Shanghai is also home to some of the country’s most prestigious universities, like Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

As a Result of Economic reforms in 1990, intense development and financing in Shanghai came, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world’s busiest cargo port.  Since 2005, Shanghai has ranked first of the world’s busiest cargo ports throughout, handling a total of 560 million tons of cargo in 2007. Shanghai container traffic has surpassed Hong Kong to become the second busiest port in the world, behind Singapore.

Now over 300 of the world’s top 500 enterprises have opened branches in Shanghai, while many have their research and development centres or headquarters there.  Shanghai’s rapid development has come as a great surprise to many in China and has international recognition. Shanghai has grown from a provincial city into an international metropolis on par with New York and Paris in just ten years. This has never been accomplished by other cities in the world.

Since 1990s, the number of overseas students has been maintaining a higher growth rate. In 2002, Shanghai enrolled 13,081 overseas students from more than 100 countries and regions.  Shanghai has always been and still is conscientious in treating its overseas students in order to promote scientific and cultural exchange, strengthen mutual support and cooperation with different countries.

Reproduced with permission from China 11th Edition © Lonely Planet 2009” www.LonelyPlanet.com

You can’t see the Great Wall from space, but you’d have a job missing Shànghai. One of China’s most massive and vibrant cities, Shànghai is heading places the rest of China can only fantasise about. Somehow typifying modern China while being unlike anywhere else in the land, Shànghai is real China, but perhaps just not the real China you had in mind.

In a doddery land five millennia old, Shànghai feels like it was born yesterday. When you’ve had your fill of Terracotta Warriors, musty palaces and gloomy imperial tombs, submit to Shànghai’s debutante charms. You won’t find ancient temples or hoary monuments, but instead you’ll discover a funky blend of art deco architecture, bullet-fast Maglevs, skyrocket¬ing buildings, French patisseries, jazz, European streetscapes, charming 19th-century lŵlòng (alleys) and cocktails on the Bund.

This is a city of action, not ideas. You won’t spot many wild-haired poets handing out flyers, but a skyscraper will form before your eyes. The Shanghainese chit-chat about trifling matters, but what they really talk about is money. The movers and shakers of modern China may give a nod to Beijing, but their eyes – and their money – are on Shànghai.

Shànghai is perhaps – like Hong Kong – a city best seen as a prologue or epilogue to your China experience. It can hardly match the epic history of Beijing or Xi’ãn, yet Shànghai has a unique story to tell and no other Chinese city does foreign concession streetscapes in quite the same way. The Bund, French Concession and Shanghai Museum are incomparable top sights that cannot be missed. And you can certainly warm to the growing acres of neon across the Huangpu River in LùjiazuT, even if setting foot in Püdong can leave you cold.