A little bit of history: Shanghai (the name means 'by the water') is largely a Western invention. As the gateway to the Yangzi it was an ideal trading port. When the British opened their first concession in 1842 after the first Opium War, Shanghai was little more than a small town supported by fishing and weaving. The British changed all that. The French followed in 1847. The Japanese arrived in 1895. It became in effect China's first fully fledged Special Economic Zone.
By 1853 Shanghai had overtaken all other Chinese ports. Mid-18th century Shanghai had a population of just 50,000; by 1900 the figure had jumped to one million. By the 1930s the city claimed some 60,000 foreign residents and was the busiest international port in Asia.
This city that was built on trade also lured the world's great houses of finance, who descended on the city to erect grand palaces of plenty. Shanghai was the biggest single foreign investment anywhere in the world. However -- exploited in workhouse conditions, crippled by hunger and poverty, sold into slavery, excluded from the high life and the parks created by the foreigners, the poor of Shanghai had a voracious appetite for radical opinion. The Communist Party was formed here in 1921 and, after numerous setbacks, 'liberated' the city in 1949. The Communists eradicated the slums, rehabilitated the city's hundreds of thousands of opium addicts, and eliminated child and slave labour. These were staggering achievements. Unfortunately, they also put Shanghai to sleep.
The wake-up call came in 1990 when the central government, under Deng Xiaoping, started throwing money at the municipality. Within a decade Shanghai is once again a financial and economic powerhouse -- this time its development being firmly under Chinese law. The city's forward thinking and intrinsic self-confidence have put it miles ahead of other cities in China. Neither Beijing nor Guangzhou can match its sheer modernity; a sense of style illuminates the city, drawing investors and travelers from afar.