Shanghai

   Shanghai is the largest city of China. It is one of the four municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. A leader in finance, industry and trade, Shanghai boasts the largest population - approximately 15 million - in all of China. Shanghai's history of revolution and culture attract tourists home and abroad. Being regarded as "Paris of China" and as the paradise for shopping, Shanghai has become an ideal city for tourism.
   Shanghai is situated in the middle of China's east coastal line and borders Jiangsu to the north and Zhejiang to the south. Shanghai covers an area of over 5,800 square kilos and has a population of over 13 million.The metropolitan of Shanghai is China's financial center and is now undergoing one of the fastest economic expansions that the world has ever seen. The center of the city is divided into two areas by the Huangpu River. Pudong, to the east, is a new business district, classified as a "tariff free zone", is growing rapidly.

    In recent years, a large number of architecturally distinctive and even eccentric buildings have sprung up throughout Shanghai. Notable examples of contemporary architecture include the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Grand Theatre in thePeople's Square precinct and Shanghai Oriental Art Center. Despite rampant redevelopment, the old city still retains some buildings of a traditional style, such as the Yuyuan Garden, an elaborate traditional garden in the Jiangnanstyle.

    The vernacular language spoken in the city is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu language. While the official language nationwide is Standard Mandarin, itself mutually unintelligible with Wu Chinese. Most Shanghai residents are the descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The population of those regions speak different dialects of Wu Chinese. From the 1990s, many migrants outside of Wu-speaking area have come to Shanghai for work. They often cannot speak the local language and therefore use Mandarin as alingua franca.