With a population of 16 million, Shanghai is a fascinating metropolis for tourists from both home and abroad. At the sight of the bustling Huangpu River and the magnificent Suzhou Creek, You will soon have a series of fantastic reveries. Shanghai as one of the largest centers of economy in China has witnessed the development of the modern history of China. It is now on its way to become an international metropolis. Shanghai has made an effort to develop the city tourism mainly featuring "city scenery", "city culture", and "city commerce". The municipal government has gradually mapped out three tourism itineraries. The itinerary for city tours, business, and shopping is organized around the People's Square and both sides of the Huangpu River. The itinerary for cultural tours around the city is organized in the public entertainment places and communities. The architecture of Shanghai has its own characters. The Bund, the Stone-gate buildings, the different kinds of Shanghai style constructions, the modern installations which make an assemblage of different styles of architecture, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign are all worth visiting.
Shanghai has undergone a historic transformation since its liberation on May 27, 1949. In the past more than 50 years, fundamental changes have taken place in this once semi-feudal and semi-colonial city. Particularly, since the Chinese government adopted the reform and opening policy in 1978, Shanghai has witnessed marked progresses in its social and economic development, thanks to the distinctive strategies adopted by the city government applicable to the advancement of a megalopolis like Shanghai. Today, Shanghai is the largest economic and transportation center in China. It also enjoys a reputation as a famed historical city in the country. Now, the city is striving to turn itself into one of the economic, financial, trade and transportation centers in the world. It also aims to lead the country in building a well-off society and in achieving the initial modernization. In the 16th century (or the middle period of the Ming Dynasty), Shanghai became the national center of textile & handicraft industry. In 1685, Shanghai set up its first customs office. After the Opium War in the mid-19th century, Shanghai served as a major trading port and gateway to inland China. With invasion of the big powers from across the world, Shanghai was then turned into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial city for about 100 year. On May 27, 1949, Shanghai was liberated by the People's Liberation Army of the Communist Party of China from the Kuomingtang rule and began to write its chapter in the history of the development of New China.
Shanghai began as Huating County, an administrative district established in 751 AD. The county, located in an area known today as Songjiang District, had its boundary reaching today's Hongkou District in the north, Xiasha in the east and the coast in the south. In 991 AD, Shanghai Town was set up in the county. During the 1260-1274 period, the town evolved into an important trading port and in 1292, the then central government approved the establishment of Shanghai County in this area, which has been widely deemed as the official beginning of the city of Shanghai. In early years after the Liberation, Shanghai was divided into 20 urban districts and 10 suburban districts. By the end of 2005 Shanghai had 18 districts and 1 county. There were 114 towns, 3 townships, 103 subdistrict committees, 3,365 neighborhood committees and 1,920 villagers' committees in the city.
Except for a few hills lying in the southwest corner, most parts of the Shanghai area are flat and belong to the alluvial plain of the Yangtze River Delta. The average sea level elevation is about four meters. The highest point within Shanghai is Dajin Hill which has a sea level elevation of 103.4 meters. The city covered an area of only 636.18 square kilometers in 1949. By the year 1958, after Shanghai took over 10 counties from Jiangsu Province -- including Jiading, Baoshan, Shanghai, Songjiang, Jinshan, Chuansha, Nanhui, Fengxian, Qingpu and Chongming, the area under the city's jurisdiction expanded to 5,910 square kilometers. The city had a total area of 6,340.5 square kilometers at the end of 2004, 0.06% of China's total territory. Shanghai extends about 120 kilometers in north and south and nearly 100 kilometers in east and west. The city's 19 districts cover a total area of 5,299.29 square kilometers and its only county has an area of 1,041.21 square kilometers. The city has three islands -- Chongming, Changxing and Hengsha -- under its jurisdiction and Chongming Island is the third largest island in China, covering an area of 1,041.21 square kilometers.
Shanghai has been constantly pushing ahead its talents program to attract more professionals to work in the city. As of the end of 2005, about 60,000 people who studied overseas were working in the city, and the number of technological businesses registered by these talents topped 3,200. Meanwhile,106,700 professionals, 2,800 of them from overseas, had received the special ``Shanghai Residence Card.'' Among the them, 73.3% hold a university degree and 8.2% hold a master or doctoral degree.
The city has further optimized its industrial structure, thus constantly consolidating the foundation for its economic growth. In 2007, the realized added value in the city's secondary industry reached 567.549billion yuan, up 86.2% over 2002, or an annual increase of 13.3% on average, according to the comparable prices. The realized added value in the tertiary industry totaled 458.838 billion yuan, up 78.3% over 2002, or an annual increase of 12.2% on average. The ratio of the city's primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry had changed from 1.8:47.6:50.6 in 0.8:47.3:51.9in 2007.
Due to constant inflow of people from other parts of the country, the size of population in Shanghai keeps growing. At the beginning when Shanghai was turned into a city, it only had a population of less than 100,000. By the time Shanghai was liberated in 1949, the city had a population of only 5.2 million. By the end of 2005, however, Shanghai's population of residents with permanent resident papers had grown to 13.6026 million, representing 1% of China's total. In 2005, the average population density in the city, in terms of residents with permanent residential papers, stood at 2,145 people per square kilometer. The population of long-term residents reached 17.78 million, according to a sample survey of 1% of the city population in 2005. The figure represents a rise of 1.37 million, 4.38 million of whom long-term residents from out of town, over the previous year.
By the end of 2005, the registration report for World Expo has passed inspection by the Bureau International des Expositions; the city has finished the legal procedures for hosting the World Expo 2010. The city relocated 17,900 families from the future Expo<