Shanghai is one of the world’s great megacities and at the same time one of the most striking examples of China’s rapid transformation. Located on the eastern coast of China at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city stretches along both banks of the Huangpu River shortly before it reaches the East China Sea. Shanghai combines an enormous modern skyline, dense residential districts, historic neighborhoods, traditional Chinese gardens and remnants of its international trading past within a single metropolitan area. The Huangpu divides the central city into Puxi, the older part on the western bank, and Pudong, the modern business district on the eastern side. Particularly around Lujiazui, Shanghai’s growth since the 1990s has created one of the most recognizable skylines in Asia.
Despite its futuristic appearance, Shanghai is not simply a modern city of skyscrapers. Traditional temples, narrow lanes, historic lilong residential quarters, colonial-era buildings and classical gardens remain embedded in the urban fabric. The contrast is especially visible along the Huangpu River: the historic architecture of the Bund faces the towers of Pudong directly across the water. Few places illustrate the coexistence of different periods of Chinese history as dramatically as Shanghai.
History
The Shanghai region has been inhabited for several thousand years, although the modern city developed comparatively late. Early settlements existed west of today’s city center, while waterways provided connections between the Yangtze Delta, inland China and the coast. During the Song and Yuan periods, increasing maritime trade gradually transformed Shanghai from a small settlement into an important regional port. In 1292 it became the seat of Shanghai County, and during the Ming period a city wall was constructed to protect the growing settlement from coastal raids.
The decisive transformation began in the nineteenth century. Following the First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanjing, Shanghai was opened to foreign trade in 1843. British, French, American and other foreign communities established concessions and commercial districts near the Huangpu River. Banks, warehouses, trading companies, factories and shipping businesses turned Shanghai into one of East Asia’s most important commercial centers. The architecture along the Bund still reflects this period, with former banks and trading houses displaying styles ranging from Neoclassical to Art Deco.
By the early twentieth century Shanghai had become a highly international city and an important center of finance, industry, publishing, cinema and political activity. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the foreign concessions disappeared and Shanghai developed into one of the country’s major industrial centers. Another dramatic transformation followed from the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, when the development of Pudong was promoted on previously much less urbanized land east of the Huangpu. Within only a few decades, Lujiazui developed into a forest of skyscrapers dominated by landmarks such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and Shanghai Tower.
Today, Shanghai’s appearance is therefore the result of several overlapping periods: traditional Chinese settlement, nineteenth-century international trade, twentieth-century industrialization and the extraordinary urban development of contemporary China.
Geology
Shanghai owes its location and even much of the land on which it stands to the Yangtze River. The city lies on the immense alluvial plain of the Yangtze Delta, an area created over thousands of years as the river transported enormous quantities of sand, silt and clay toward the East China Sea. Much of the present landscape consists of relatively young sediments deposited by rivers, tides and coastal processes. Shanghai is consequently exceptionally flat; most of the municipality lies only a few meters above sea level.
The coastline has repeatedly shifted eastward as new sediments accumulated. Parts of the modern urban region were once tidal flats, wetlands or shallow coastal waters, and land reclamation has continued this natural process artificially. The Yangtze Delta therefore remains a dynamic landscape shaped by sediment deposition, river channels and tidal currents. Even today, satellite images clearly reveal the sediment-rich waters spreading from the Yangtze estuary into the East China Sea.
These geological conditions also create major engineering challenges. Thick layers of soft, water-saturated sediment provide a relatively weak foundation for heavy structures. Shanghai’s skyscrapers therefore require sophisticated foundations with piles extending deep below the soft surface deposits. Groundwater extraction and the immense weight of urban construction have also made land subsidence an important issue in the region. The spectacular skyline of Shanghai thus stands on one of the youngest and geologically most dynamic landscapes of eastern China.
Things to See
The best introduction to Shanghai is the Bund, the famous waterfront promenade on the western bank of the Huangpu River. Its monumental banks, hotels and former trading houses recall Shanghai’s role as an international commercial center during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Across the river rises the completely different landscape of Pudong, making the Bund one of the best places to experience Shanghai’s extraordinary contrast between historical and modern architecture.
On the opposite bank, Lujiazui represents contemporary Shanghai. The Oriental Pearl Tower remains one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, while the nearby Shanghai Tower rises to more than 600 meters and dominates the modern skyline. Walking among these buildings provides a very different perspective from viewing them across the river, particularly in the evening when the entire district is illuminated.
A completely different atmosphere can be found in the Yu Garden and the surrounding Old City. Created during the Ming dynasty, Yu Garden combines pavilions, ponds, rock formations, bridges and carefully composed vegetation in the tradition of classical Chinese garden design. The neighboring streets preserve traditional-style architecture and provide one of the clearest contrasts with the skyscrapers visible in the distance.
Another fascinating area is the Former French Concession, where tree-lined streets, villas, cafés and surviving lilong neighborhoods create a considerably more intimate urban landscape. Areas such as the streets around the former French Concession are particularly rewarding for exploring Shanghai on foot and discovering smaller architectural details away from the monumental skyline.
Nanjing Road represents the commercial side of the city and leads westward from the Bund through one of China’s best-known shopping districts. Nearby People’s Square forms an important cultural center, surrounded by institutions including the Shanghai Museum and several major theaters and exhibition spaces.
For a glimpse of Shanghai before the age of skyscrapers, surviving shikumen and lilong neighborhoods are particularly interesting. Their narrow lanes and brick houses developed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and once represented one of the most characteristic forms of Shanghai housing. Redeveloped areas such as Xintiandi preserve selected examples, although quieter residential lanes elsewhere often provide a more authentic impression.
The Huangpu River itself is also one of Shanghai’s major attractions. A river cruise after sunset offers views of both the illuminated Bund and the towers of Pudong and makes the historical development of the city unusually easy to understand: two centuries of Shanghai architecture face one another across only a few hundred meters of water.