General Introduction

Shanghai, the largest city in China and one of the four centrally administered municipalities, is situated along the middle of tile mainland coastline at the Yangtze River outlet to the East China Sea. After the Opium War of 1840, Shanghai was opened as a trade port to foreign powers which set up their concessions there through concluding unequal treaties with China. In the century or more that followed, Shanghai became the largest base of imperialist aggression in China, known in the West as an "adventurers' paradise". A city with a glorious revolutionary record in modern Chinese history, it was here that the Chinese Communist Party was founded in July 1921.

Shanghai has an area of 6,185 square kilometers, the city districts covering 145 square kilometers and the suburban area 6,040 square kilometers. Over 11.46 million people live in Shanghai -- 5.8 million in the city and the rest in the suburban counties.