Shanghai Travel Guide

We shall admit easily that Shanghai is a unique city. During these last years, the city was the witness of striking progress both at the level development social and economic, partially thanks to the strategies of the government which wishes to return to this megalopolis its size of formerly.
Today, with a population of XXX inhabitants, Shanghai is the biggest financial center of China and its most important platform of transport. The city " over the sea " - "Shang Hai" - possesses a long and animated history and keeps the hope to get back to its glory of formerly, when Bund was the Wall Street of China. Shanghai aspires to bigger horizons today, to become the main financial center in Asia or even to become a real financial global center.
Hardly 15 years ago, nobody would have been able to imagine that Pudong - the district of the city situated east of the river Huangpu - the financial and commercial the most vibrating center of China would become. In only some years, and in front of eyes amazed Shanghaiens, unhealthy swamps and ruined governmental factories were replaced by a forest of breathtaking guitars-skies, among which the tower Jin Mao, the third biggest building of China, is certainly the most striking example, and the tower there " Oriental Pearl " the most symbolic.
The city also optimized its industrial structure, and so managed to keep its economy on the road of an increasing and fast expansion. For more than fifteen years, the city knows a two digit growth of its GNP. In 2005, the GNP reached 914.395 billion yuans, 75.3 % more than in 2000 in real terms, what represents an annual increase about 11.9 %
Shanghai plays an important role in the economic and social development of the country. An eighth of the total financial income of the country is supplied by Shanghai.
Thanks to its port, ideally situated in the entrance of the strait of the Yang Tsé, the city is the witness of a continuous expansion of its international trade. In 2005, the exports and the imports registered by the Customs of Shanghai reached 350.678 billion $US, that is a 24.1 % increase with regard to the previous year. The imports represented 138.248 billion $US, or a 14 % increase, and the exports 212.43 billion $US, that is a 31.7 % increase.
The objectives of Shanghai are the preservation of the economic and social development on a fast but long-sustainable rhythm, the success of the World Fair of 2010, and the establishment of a regulatory framework and infrastructures so that this unique city really becomes an international center of finance, business and transport.
What to do and to see in Shanghai?
- Temple of the jade Buddha
- Museum of Shanghai
- Bund, the walk along the river Huangpu
- Jin Mao Tower - the high tower furthermore of 400m