About shanghai

Geographic Location and Natural Condition
Shanghai is located in the foreside of the Yangtze River Delta and bordered on the east of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. Shanghai also assumes the central location along China's coastal line and has a total area of 6,340 square kilometers. Today, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and the Yangtze River Delta, comprise the most economically developed area and the richest place of China.

Most parts of the Shanghai area are flat and belong to the alluvial plain of the Yangtze River Delta. Shanghai is known for its rich water resources, with the rivers and lakes accounting for 11% of its total territory. Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek are the main waterways in the Shanghai area. The city's Chongming Island is the third largest island in China.

With a pleasant northern subtropical maritime monsoon climate, Shanghai enjoys four distinct seasons, generous sunshine, and abundant rainfall every year. The average annual temperature is about 16 degrees Celsius, although it can fall below 5 degrees Celsius in the winter and reach over 35 degrees Celsius in the summer.

Social Development
Shanghai is divided into 18 districts and 1 county, encompassing 153 towns and 3 townships. Some 13.34 million people are permanent residents, and the city has a total population of 16.74 million (including the floating population).

By the end of 2001, Shanghai had employed 7.52 million people. Of the total, 24.5% were hired by state-owned enterprises and institutions, 35.5% were employed by collectively-owned units, and 40% found jobs in foreign-invested companies, private units, and other economic entities.

There are 3.78 lawyers among 10,000 Shanghainese, which is 3.5 times that of Chinese average. There are over 50 foreign law firms in Shanghai accounting for 1/3 of the total in China.

Shanghai's 160 municipal-level industrial associations also play an important role in government decision-making and industrial self-discipline.

Education and Human Resources
Shanghai's talent qualification is at the leading position of China, and the productivity of unit human cost is rather high. Shanghai is well known not only as a city possessing abundant talent reserves, but also as one gathering talents from both at home and abroad. Some 50 universities and colleges are located in Shanghai, with the number of students exceeding 330,000. Shanghai has up to 696,800 different levels of technical personnel, and on average, there are 525 different kinds of technical personnel per 10,000 persons. More than 1,000 research and development institutions are located in Shanghai. In addition, a survey in 2002 showed that there were 25 international schools covering kindergartens, primary schools, junior schools, and senior schools in Shanghai. In Shanghai, there are over 32,000 talents coming from overseas, accounting for 20% of the total in China and nearly 50,000 permanent experts from overseas, Hong Kong, and Macao, taking up 40% of the aggregate.

Public Health
With regard to medical security, there are about 4,600 medical institutes in various types, with more than 70,000 sickbeds, over 460 comprehensive hospitals, 26 CDCs, as well as 10 women and children health centers. There are more than 100,000 professionals in this field, including about 50,000 doctors. Shanghai also has an extensive health care service network among the communities. So far, among the 18 foreign-invested hospitals and over 60 foreign-invested clinics approved by the government of China, 25 are located in Shanghai.

Transportation
A. Urban transportation
Public bus and subway are the main vehicles for urban residents. Buses can reach almost every residential and business area. Shanghai has built 2 subway lines and 2 light railway lines. Furthermore, it has the first magnetic levitation railway in China and will complete another one from Shanghai to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, by the end of 2010.

B. Ocean Freight
In terms of ocean transportation, the Shanghai port has established shipping and trading connections with more than 600 shipping companies and 500 ports in 200 countries and regions around the world. In 2002, the throughput of Shanghai port reached 8.61 million TEUs, which ranked fourth in the world, only after Hong Kong, Singapore, and Busan.

C. Land Transportation
Shanghai also enjoys a developed inland transportation and is the busiest railway hub of the country: you can reach all the railway terminals in China from Shanghai railway station. In terms of highway, the total length of highway in Shanghai has reached 650 kilometers. A comprehensive transportation network connecting Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and even Yangtze Delta is coming into shape. Now starting from Shanghai, it takes only four hours to reach any of the cities in Yangtze Delta.

D. Air Transportation
In 2002, Shanghai's airfreight volume ranked first and the number of air passengers ranked second among all cities in China. In domestic air routes, Shanghai has flights to all provinces and national autonomous regions (except Taiwan) in China. In international air routes, Shanghai is China's second-largest international air hub. With flights to 59 cities in the world and 31 international airline companies which now have operations here, Shanghai has two international airports: Pudong International Airport, which handles most international and some domestic flights; and, Hongqiao Airport, which is the supplemental airport. Currently, Pudong International Airport has an annual capacity for 20 million passengers and 750 thousand tons airfreight.

Social Credibility
Shanghai is particularly proud of its social credibility information system, the largest in China. In July 2000, Shanghai opened the first individual united credibility information system in China, followed by the enterprises united credibility information systems in March 2002. Today, 2.93 million persons' (1/4 of Shanghai's registered population) credibility files are covered by individual credibility system. Some 480,000 enterprises have been incorporated into the enterprise credibility system, covering all enterprises in Shanghai.

Foreigners in Shanghai
Shanghai is an ideal city to live in for foreign investors. At present, the number of foreigners living and working in Shanghai is far ahead of that in other cities of China. According to statistics, about 100,000 foreigners and 250,000 Taiwanese lived in Shanghai, among whom some 34,735 foreigners from 126 countries were working in this city in 2002.

Entertainment and Travel
As a historic city, there had been 16 state key protection relics, 110 city key protection relics, 21 historic memorial spots, and 15 protection spots in Shanghai by the end of 2001. Among the relics and spots stand the most famous 1,000-year-old Longhua Ancient Temple, Jing'an Ancient Temple built in the Three Kingdoms Period, the world-renown Jade Buddha Temple, the famous eastern China's Garden Yuyuan, as well as Jiading Confucian Temple, Songjiang Square Pagoda and Songjiang Zuibai Pond, retaining the historic relics and preserving the typical Chinese garden elites that originated from the Dynasties of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

Since the early 1990s, many well-known functional buildings have been erected, adding a fascinating modern city's scenery to Shanghai, as well as becoming the new sightseeing spots. The buildings include the People's Square, also known as the City's Green Lung, the Oriental Pearl Broadcasting & Television Tower, which has made 10 world records, the Jinmao Mansion, the highest building in China, Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Grand Theater, and the Shanghai City Plan Exhibition Hall.

Shanghai residents enjoy a diversity of entertainment, with operas and concerts visiting Shanghai constantly and fireworks lighting up the city fascinatingly on holidays. In addition, there are over 20 golf courses and several hundred gyms in Shanghai and surrounding areas. What's more, Hengshan Road and Xin taindi, which are famous for their bars, often attract foreigners.

Economic Development
At the very beginning of the last century, Shanghai was the biggest industrial city in China and the financial center of the Far East. In the 1990s, taking the opportunity of the development and opening of Pudong, Shanghai quickened the economic reform process, expanded its opening, and made significant achievements. In recent years, the tertiary industry has developed rapidly at an annual rate of 12% and took up 51% of the GDP of Shanghai in 2002. From 1998 to 2002, the total GDP and per capita disposable income enjoyed double digit growth every year. By 2002, the GDP of Shanghai had reached USD65 billion with per capita GDP standing at about USD5,000. It is expected that by 2007, our per capita GDP will reach USD7,500. At the same time, the unemployment rate will be below 3%-5% and the inflation rate below 2%-4%.

During the past decade, Shanghai's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased rapidly at a rate of up to 36%, 10% higher than that of China as a whole and the highest for many years. In 2002, Shanghai's FDI accounted for 19.3% of the total fixed assets input. These investments were mainly from Southeast Asia, Latin American, Europe, and North America. So far, a total of 103 countries and regions have invested in Shanghai.

Financial Market
As the financial center of China, Shanghai boasts the most comprehensive financial market system in mainland China.

The financial market in Shanghai includes securities, inter-bank offerings, bonds, futures, foreign currency, and gold. There are among 730 listed companies and 775 stocks issued on Shanghai Securities Exchange. The exchange value of stock on Shanghai Securities Exchange in 2002 accounted for 60% of China's total, with an amount of up to RMB2,800 billion. In 2002, Shanghai Gold Exchange opened, indicating China had established all the Exchange Markets for major financial products, and made Shanghai the domestic financial center of China.

Shanghai has more than 3,300 Sino-foreign financial units, among which there are about 70 operative foreign financial units with 54 foreign banks and 15 foreign insurance companies. Four foreign banks have set up their Chinese headquarters in Shanghai, namely Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Overseas Chinese Bank. Thirty foreign banks have been authorized to engage in RMB business, and twenty-three have been authorized to operate foreign exchange business in full scope in Shanghai. Undoubtedly, Shanghai is the financial center of China and is moving towards the international financial center rapidly.

International Exhibition
Shanghai's burgeoning exhibitions and conferences greatly promote the formation of an international market and indicate Shanghai's rapid rise in its international standing.

The area of exhibition industry increases at a rate of 30%. Many world famous conferences have been held in Shanghai, such as Fortune forum, APEC, Shanghai 5 States Summit, ADB annual meeting, and the 32nd ICC. Shanghai International Mould Expo has been listed in UFI. World Expo 2010, which will be held in Shanghai, is expected to make several records. For instance, it will be the first time for the World Expo to be held in a developing nation, and it will be the largest in terms of coverage and visitors.