Shanghai, referred to as “Hu” or “Shen”, is a municipality directly under the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China, a national central city, a megacity, China’s economic, transportation, technology, industry, finance, trade, exhibition and shipping center, and one of the first batch of coastal open cities. Shanghai is located at the estuary of the Yangtze River and is the leading city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It faces the Japanese island of Kyushu across the China Sea in the east, Hangzhou Bay in the south, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in the north and west.
Shanghai is a national historical and cultural city with profound modern urban cultural heritage and numerous historical monuments. The traditional Wuyue culture in the south of the Yangtze River and the industrial culture introduced from the West formed Shanghai’s unique Shanghai culture. Most Shanghainese people belong to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang ethnic groups and speak the Wu language.
Shanghai governs 16 municipal districts with a total area of 6,340 square kilometers. It has a subtropical humid monsoon climate with four distinct seasons, sufficient sunshine and abundant rainfall. Shanghai has a mild and humid climate, with short spring and autumn, warm winters and cool summers. January is the coldest, with an average temperature of about 4°C, and July is usually the hottest, with an average temperature of about 28°C.
Shanghai is China’s important economic, transportation, technology, industry, finance, exhibition and shipping center. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world in terms of scale and area. Shanghai Port ranks first in the world in cargo throughput and container throughput, and is a good international port along the river and sea. Shanghai is also the location of the “China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone”, the first free trade zone in mainland China. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration formed by Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui has become one of the six world-class urban agglomerations in the world.
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