Shanghai is a supercity in terms of population, economic power, international trade and shipping. The Shanghai Stock Exchange is one
of the major global players.
Thanks to its strategic location at the mouth of the Yangzhe River Delta, Shanghai
was already an important trading post in the Qing period
.
In the First Opium War British and French
troops occupied the city in 1839 and for the next century Europeans lived in the foreign concessions.
Parts of town still have
a very French touch.
In 1941 the Japanese army occupied the city and drove the europeans out..
After the war Shanghai became
an industrial center in communist China and from 1991 it opened up to the rest of the world, thanks to visionary Deng Xiaoping.
Shanghai
has many interesting landmarks like the Bund, Yu Garden, several age old temples and quiet parks, but also upscale and expensive
shopping centers.
Since 2004 the city host the Formule One race on a track shaped in the form of the chinese Shang character.
We
visited Shanghai several times and lived there from 2003 till mid 2006, giving us ample time to explore this bustling super
city.
