Shanghai is a provincial-level direct-administered municipality in China. It has a population of 30,050,000 in the urban area as of 2026, thus making it China's most populous city and the fifth-largest city in the world by population. The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River bisecting the city.
Shanghai is a global centre for finance, business, research, science and technology, manufacturing, transportation, tourism, and culture. The Port of Shanghai is the world's busiest container port. Separately, the municipality of Shanghai recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of RMB 5.67 trillion in 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.4%.
Originally a fishing village and market town, Shanghai grew to global prominence in the 19th century due to domestic and foreign trade and its favorable port location. The city was one of five treaty ports forced to open to trade with the Europeans after the First Opium War, with the Shanghai International Settlement and French Concession subsequently established. The city became a primary commercial and financial hub of Asia in the 1930s. During the Second World War, it was the site of the Battle of Shanghai, where it fell under Japanese rule. This was followed by the Chinese Civil War with the Communists taking over the city and most of the mainland. During the Cold War, trade was mostly limited to other socialist countries in the Eastern Bloc, causing the city's global influence to decline.
The reform and opening up supported by Deng Xiaoping led to extensive redevelopment by the 1990s, particularly in the Pudong New Area, spurring the return of finance and foreign investment. The city has re-emerged as a hub for international trade and finance. It is the home of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the Asia-Pacific by market capitalization and the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone, the first free-trade zone in mainland China. It is ranked fifth globally on the Global Financial Centres Index. Shanghai has been classified as an Alpha+ (global first-tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. As of 2024, it is home to 13 companies of the Fortune Global 500—the fourth-highest number of any city. Shanghai is the world's second largest city by scientific outputs and home to several highly ranked universities, including Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong and Tongji. The Shanghai Metro, first opened in 1993, is the largest metro network in the world by route length.
Shanghai has been described as a global finance and innovation hub, and it is one of the ten biggest economic hubs in the world. Featuring several architectural styles such as Art Deco and shikumen, the city contains the Lujiazui skyline, and museums and historic buildings such as the City God Temple, Yu Garden, the China Pavilion and buildings along the Bund. Shanghai is known for its cuisine, local language, and cosmopolitan culture. It ranks sixth in the list of cities with the most skyscrapers.
Etymology
The two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 (Pinyin: shàng; Wugniu: zaon, "upon") and 海 (hǎi; he, "sea"), together meaning "On the Sea". The earliest occurrence of this name is the 11th-century Song dynasty, when there was a river confluence and a town with this name in the area. Others contend that the city is referenced in historical records dating back 2150 years, and that its ancient name, "Hu", suggests it was a fishing village. In 1280 it was renamed "Shanghai", which translates to "Above the Sea". The name's interpretation was disputed, but Chinese historians concluded that during the Tang dynasty, the area of modern-day Shanghai was under sea level, so the land appeared to be "on the sea". The name was also used to refer to Shanghai county (上海县; 上海縣; Shànghǎi Xiàn; zaon-he-yoe), which today has been reorganised into Minhang district.
Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 (Traditional: 滬, Hù; wu) in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎 (滬瀆, Hù Dú; wu-doq, "Fishing Weir Ditch"), a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality.
Alternative names
申 (Shēn; sén) or 申城 (Shēnchéng; sén-zen, "Shen City") was an early name originating from Lord Chunshen, a 3rd-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. 华亭 (華亭, Huátíng; gho-din) was another early name for Shanghai. In AD 751, Huating County was established as the first county-level administration within modern-day Shanghai by Zhao Juzhen, the governor of Wu Commandery.
魔都 (Módū; mo-tú, "monster/fiend/magical city"), is a contemporary nickname for Shanghai. The name was first mentioned in Mato (1924) by Japanese novelist Shōfu Muramatsu. The city has various English nicknames including the "New York of China", in reference to its status as a cosmopolitan megalopolis and financial hub, the "Pearl of the Orient", and the "Paris of the East".
History
Antiquity
The western part of modern-day Shanghai was inhabited 6,000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn period (approximately 771 to 476 BC), it belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period (475 BC), Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu, one of the Four Lords of the Warring States. Local legends claim he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River, an important river in the area. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of "Shēn". Fishermen living in the Shanghai area then created a fish tool called the hù, which lent its name to the outlet of Suzhou Creek north of the Old City and became a common nickname and abbreviation for the city.
Imperial era
During the Tang and Song dynasties, Qinglong Town (青龙镇; 青龍鎮; Wugniu: chín-lon-tsen) in modern Qingpu District was a major trading port. Established in 746, it developed into what was historically called a "giant town of the Southeast". The port experienced thriving trade with provinces along the Yangtze and the Chinese coast, as well as foreign countries such as Japan and Silla. By the end of the Song dynasty, the centre of trading had moved downstream of the Wusong River to Shanghai. Its status was upgraded from a village to a market town in 1074; in 1172, a second sea wall was built to stabilize the ocean coastline, supplementing an earlier dike. From the Yuan dynasty in 1292 until Shanghai officially became a municipality in 1927, central Shanghai was administered as a county under Songjiang Prefecture, which had its seat in the present-day Songjiang District.
Shanghai's first city wall was built in 1554 to protect the town from raids by Japanese pirates. It was 10 meters (33 ft) high and 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) in circumference. A City God Temple was built in 1602 during the Wanli reign. This honour was usually reserved for prefectural capitals and not normally given to a county seat like Shanghai. Scholars theorized that this reflected the town's economic importance.
During the Qing dynasty, two central government policy changes caused Shanghai to become one of the most important seaports in the Yangtze Delta region. The first was in 1684, when the Kangxi Emperor reversed the 1525 prohibition on oceangoing vessels. In 1732, the Qianlong Emperor moved the customs office for Jiangsu province (see Customs House, Shanghai) from Songjiang to Shanghai, and gave Shanghai exclusive control over customs collections for Jiangsu's foreign trade. Shanghai became the major trade port for the lower Yangtze region by 1735, despite being at the lowest administrative level in the political hierarchy.
In the 19th century, international attention and recognition of its economic and trade potential at the Yangtze grew. British forces occupied the city during the First Opium War. The war ended in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking, which opened Shanghai as one of the five treaty ports for international trade. The Treaty of the Bogue, the Treaty of Wanghia, and the Treaty of Whampoa, signed between 1843 and 1844, forced Chinese concession to European and American desires for visitation and trade in China. Britain, France, and the United States established a presence outside the walled city of Shanghai, which remained under the direct administration of the Chinese.
The Chinese-held Old City of Shanghai fell to rebels from the Small Swords Society in 1853, but was regained by the Qing government in February 1855. In 1854, the Shanghai Municipal Council was created to manage the foreign settlements. Between 1860 and 1862, the Taiping rebels twice attacked Shanghai and destroyed the city's eastern and southern suburbs, but failed to take the city. In 1863, the British settlement south of Suzhou Creek (northern Huangpu District) and the American settlement to the north (southern Hongkou District) joined to form the Shanghai International Settlement. The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council and maintained its own concession at the city's south and southwest. The First Sino-Japanese War concluded with the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, which elevated Japan as another foreign power in Shanghai. Japan built the first factories in Shanghai, which were copied by other foreign powers. This international activity gave Shanghai the nickname "the Great Athens of China".
Republic era
In 1912, the Old City walls were dismantled as they blocked the city's expansion. In July 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in the Shanghai French Concession. On 30 May 1925, the May Thirtieth Movement broke out when a worker in a Japanese-owned cotton mill was shot and killed by a Japanese foreman. Workers in the city then launched general strikes against imperialism, which became nationwide protests that gave rise to Chinese nationalism.
The golden age of Shanghai began with its elevation to municipality after it was separated from Jiangsu on 7 July 1927. This new Chinese municipality was 494.69 square kilometers (191.00 sq mi), and included the districts of Baoshan, Yangpu, Zhabei, Nanshi, and Pudong. Headed by a Chinese mayor and municipal council, the city's government implemented the Greater Shanghai Plan to create a new city centre in Jiangwan town of Yangpu district, outside the boundaries of the foreign concessions. The city became a commercial and financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. During the ensuing decades, citizens of many countries immigrated to Shanghai; those who stayed for long periods called themselves "Shanghailanders". In the 1920s and 1930s, almost 20,000 White Russians fled the newly established Soviet Union to reside in Shanghai. These Shanghai Russians constituted the second-largest foreign community. By 1932, Shanghai had become the world's fifth-largest city and home to 70,000 foreigners. In the 1930s, approximately 30,000 Jewish refugees from Europe arrived in the city.
Japanese invasion
On 28 January 1932, Japanese military forces invaded Shanghai. More than 10,000 shops and hundreds of factories and public buildings were destroyed, leaving Zhabei district ruined. About 18,000 civilians were either killed, injured, or declared missing. A ceasefire was brokered on 5 May. In 1937, the Battle of Shanghai resulted in the occupation of the Chinese-administered parts of Shanghai outside of the International Settlement and the French Concession. People who stayed in the occupied city experienced hunger, oppression, or death. The foreign concessions were occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and remained occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945.
Many Jewish people arrived in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation period. A vice-consul for Japan in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, issued thousands of visas to Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust, and the Japanese government transferred many of them to Shanghai by November 1941. Other Jewish refugees travelled from Italy. The refugees from Europe were interned in the Shanghai Ghetto in Hongkou District after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After the surrender of Japan, the Chinese Army liberated the Ghetto, and most of the Jews left over the next few years.
People's Republic era
On 27 May 1949, the People's Liberation Army took control of Shanghai through the Shanghai Campaign. Under the new People's Republic of China (PRC), Shanghai was one of only three municipalities not merged into neighboring provinces (the others being Beijing and Tianjin). Most foreign firms moved their offices from Shanghai to Hong Kong, as part of a foreign divestment due to the PRC's victory.
After the war, Shanghai's economy was restored. From 1949 to 1952, the city's agricultural and industrial output increased by 51.5% and 94.2%, respectively. As the industrial centre of China with the most skilled industrial workers, Shanghai became a centre for radical leftism during the 1950s and 1960s. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Shanghai's society was severely damaged. The majority of the workers in the Shanghai branch of the People's Bank of China were Red Guards, and they formed a group called the Anti-Economy Liaison Headquarters within the branch. The Anti-Economy Liaison Headquarters dismantled economic organizations in Shanghai, investigated bank withdrawals, and disrupted regular bank service in the city. Despite the disruptions of the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai maintained economic production with a positive annual growth rate.
In 1990, Deng Xiaoping permitted Shanghai to initiate economic reforms, which reintroduced foreign capital to the city and developed the Pudong district, resulting in the birth of Lujiazui. That year, China's central government designated Shanghai as the "Dragon Head" of the reform and opening up. In 2022, Shanghai experienced a large outbreak of COVID-19 cases and the Chinese government locked down the entire city on 5 April. This resulted in widespread food shortages across the city as food-supply chains were severely disrupted. These restrictions were lifted on 1 June.
Geography
Shanghai is located on the Yangtze Estuary of China's east coast, with the Yangtze River to the north, Hangzhou Bay to the south, and the East China Sea to the east. The land is formed by the Yangtze's natural deposition and modern land reclamation projects. It has sandy soil, and skyscrapers have to be built with deep concrete piles to avoid sinking into the soft ground. The provincial-level Municipality of Shanghai administers the estuary and many of its surrounding islands. It borders the provinces of Zhejiang to the south and Jiangsu to the west and north. The municipality's northernmost point is on Chongming Island, the second-largest island in mainland China after its expansion during the 20th century.