Shanghai
Municipality with provincial status (pop., 1999 est.: city, 8,937,175; 2000 est.: municipality, 16,740,000), east-central China.
The municipality, on the East China Sea, is bordered by Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and has an area of 2,400 sq mi (6,200 sq km). The city is located on the Huangpu River, which gives oceangoing vessels access to it. Shanghai was settled c. AD 1000, and later under the Ming dynasty it was an area of intense cotton production. This changed when it became the first Chinese port opened to trade with the West after China's defeat by Britain in the Opium Wars (1842); it came to dominate the nation's commerce. The site of the Chinese Communist Party's founding in 1921, it saw severe fighting in the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45 and was occupied by Japan during World War II. Since the communist victory in 1949, it has become China's chief industrial and commercial centre and one of its leading centres of higher education and scientific research.
上海 Shanghai
中国中央直辖市。简称沪，别称申。中国最大的经济中心和第一大港。北界长江，南临杭州湾，东濒东海，西接苏浙。面积5,800平方千米。春秋属吴，战国先属越后属楚。唐天宝五年(746)设青龙镇，后为兴起的上海所取代。南宋咸淳三年(1267)建上海镇，镇因黄浦江西的上海浦得名，属华亭县管辖。元至元二十八年(1291)，从华亭县划出高昌、北亭等5个乡设上海县。1927年析江苏省的上海、宝山、嘉定诸县地，置上海市。位于长江三角洲上，地势低平。河流有长江、黄浦江及其支流吴淞江(苏州河)等。有淀山湖等大小湖荡30多个。上海旧城厢之外是著名的上海外滩。工业以汽车、钢铁、石化、医药等为主。农业以种植业、饲养业为主。上海是中国特大型综合性贸易中心，最大的进出口岸。京沪、沪杭两条铁路干线的会合点。沪宁、沪杭高速公路过境。是中国重要航空中心和三大国际航空港之一，有虹桥机尝浦东机场。有复旦大学、同济大学、中国纺织大学、上海交通大学等。名胜古迹有孙中山故居、鲁迅墓、豫园、人民广场等。人口13,340,000(2003)。