31 minute read

Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. Business Information, Profile, and History

Jinshanwei
Shanghai 200540
China

History of Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

With more than 55 plants, Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (SPC) is China's largest and most diverse petrochemical enterprise, ranking among the country's biggest corporations. By the early 1990s, the firm was China's only petrochemical entity to combine petroleum, chemicals, chemical fibers, and plastics operations at one site. Its complex included: one ethylene plant, two chemical intermediates units, two polyester units, an aromatics plant, a polyvinyl alcohol plant, a polyacrylic fiber plant, and a plastics factory. SPC's hundreds of petrochemical products have applications in many industries, including: agriculture, pharmaceutical, automotive, aviation, appliance, and textile. In 1996, the company set new production records, refining 4.85 million metric tons (mt) of crude oil (on a capacity of 5.3 million mt) into premium gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt, and other petroleum products. The by-products of these processes were used to produce 465,000 mt of ethylene; 701,000 mt of synthetic fibers; and 344,000 mt of synthetic plastics. Asian Monetary Magazine named SPC China's Best Managed Company that same year.

SPC's size is not the only factor that sets it apart from the majority of Chinese companies. The firm's development can serve as a study in the post-World War II modernization of industry and trade in the People's Republic of China. SPC's creation corresponded with the reopening of the country to foreign diplomacy. As China warmed to international relations--both diplomatic and economic--SPC evolved from a dependence on rather backwards domestic technology to a preference for purchasing advanced plant and process from foreign firms. With the government's approval, the company eventually sought development loans from foreign banks. In 1993, this trend reached an important stage when SPC became one of a limited number of Chinese firms to have equity traded on international stock exchanges.

Background and Foundation in 1972

Like all major Chinese enterprises, Shanghai Petrochemical Company's history is intimately linked to China's communist government. In fact, the impetus behind the 1972 creation of this petrochemical company can be traced to the ascendance of political leaders Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping in the waning years of Mao Zedong's life.

In the early 1970s, the People's Republic of China was beginning to emerge from a chaotic period known as the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-76), when Chairman Mao encouraged anti-intellectualism and isolationism while largely neglecting economic development. The social and political upheaval that resulted from this movement hampered the country's budding industrial efforts, reducing overall industrial production by 12 percent from 1966 to 1968.

With the approval of Mao, who experienced a debilitating stroke in 1972, Zhou began a series of reforms, including the gradual reopening of international relations. After a 20-year hiatus of official Sino-American relations, he hosted a clandestine meeting with U.S. national security advisor Henry Kissinger in 1971, and supported President Richard Nixon's historic visit the following year. This relaxation of tensions between the two nations was an important step toward opening the door to importations of the petrochemical processing equipment that was vital to the successful development of the Shanghai Petrochemical Complex.

SPC was organized in 1972 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp. (SINOPEC), the government-controlled arbiter of the nation's petroleum industry. The plant was built on Hangzhou Bay in Jinshanwei, about two hours outside Shanghai. One of about a dozen "special economic zones" created in the late 1970s and early 1980s to draw international investment and trade, Shanghai would grow to become China's premier industrial and manufacturing center. The first phase of SPC's development lasted four years and cost the Chinese government an estimated US$800 million. Although the plant used some imported technology, most of its equipment and processes were developed domestically.

In 1978, after a period of political turmoil surrounding Mao's and Zhou's deaths in 1976, Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formulated a rigorous ten-year plan for economic growth. This program placed utmost emphasis on "Four Modernizations": industry, defense, agriculture, and science and technology. And in a dramatic reversal of previous policy, the country began to solicit capital from overseas sources to help finance these modernizations.

Basic chemicals, including petrochemicals, were among the highest priority industries, because they constituted the basic building blocks of many modern consumer goods. Petrochemicals are used in such widely varied products as drugs, fabrics, fertilizers, paints, and plastics of all types. As a result, SPC enjoyed a great deal of support from the government. For example, SINOPEC--which soon grew to rank among the world's top five petroleum producers--sold crude oil to SPC at a 40 percent discount to world market prices.

But with such rewards came heavy responsibilities. In order for the Chinese government to maintain full employment, many of the nation's largest firms were obliged to take on upwards of 50 percent more workers than necessary. Furthermore, they had no authority to use incentive or punishment to motivate workers. SPC also had heavy social obligations, including construction and maintenance of its own utilities (power and water plants) and transportation network (a wharf, railroad hub, and highways), not to mention primary and secondary schools and universities, hospitals, movie houses, and shopping centers. By the early 1990s, the complex employed over 60,000 and supported at least 40,000 more. For most of its history, SPC concentrated more on increasing its production levels and meeting its social obligations than making a profit. In fact, the company was compelled to forward any annual financial surplus to the government, which rationed out the funds according to national economic plans.

Economic Reforms Continue Apace in the 1980s

While China often fell short of its stated goals, it did make progress toward economic liberalization in the 1980s. Increasing openness to external influence was evidenced at SPC in the purchase of technology from companies outside the People's Republic of China. In fact, the petrochemical company contracted most of the construction and purchased much of its equipment from foreign firms for its subsequent expansion programs. By the early 1990s, over 80 percent of its production facilities were based on imported technology. The Chinese government lent SPC the US$850 million needed to finance this program, which lasted from 1980 to 1985. The debts were paid by 1988.

In 1987, SPC embarked on a third stage of capacity expansion. This three-year program borrowed US$920 million from domestic sources and tapped international lenders for another $350 million. The subsequent addition of an imported 450,000 mt/year ethylene unit ranked SPC number one among China's ethylene plants and pushed the nation into the world's top ten ethylene producers. Ethylene is one of the organic chemical industry's most important feedstocks. It can be polymerized to create polyethylene plastic for packaging; combined with sulfuric acid and hydrolyzed to make gasoline additives; or combined with oxygen to create an ingredient for antifreeze and soaps.

SPC had for most of its first two decades in business concentrated on meeting seemingly insatiable domestic petrochemical demand. The company took its first tentative step toward the export markets with the 1984 creation of Shanghai Jinshan Associated Trading Corp. (SJATC), an overseas trading office. Corporate export volume constituted less than 4 percent of annual sales by 1991, but the company had forged vital ties to customers in 20 different countries. These international contacts would become increasingly important as SPC sought joint venture partners in the early 1990s.

Internationalism Dominates 1990s

China accelerated its "economic liberalization program" in September 1992. With an eye on increasing efficiency and becoming more involved in the global economy, it gave company managers more authority to allocate resources, both human and material, and slowly began to ease wage, distribution, and price controls to correspond slightly more closely to market levels. Along with this freedom came increased accountability for fiscal performance.

As China's domestic petrochemical industry grew close to meeting internal demand, petrochemical ministers began to turn their attention to international export and downstream diversification in the early 1990s. Joint ventures were key to SPC's overseas strategy. Joint venture and patent laws adopted in the late 1970s helped reassure foreign entrepreneurs that their assets and ideas would not be stolen. Furthermore, China made efforts to reduce bureaucratic "red tape" and relax tax codes to entice outside investors. Realizing the largely untapped potential of the Chinese consumer market, the usually wary leaders of the global chemical industry snapped up joint venture opportunities. From 1993 to 1996, SPC signed cooperative agreements with at least nine foreign firms, including BP Chemicals, Phillips Petroleum Co., Mitsubishi Corp., and Union Carbide.

Economic liberalization also meant that the Chinese government was willing to sell minority stakes in some of its most capital-intensive businesses to reduce outright borrowing. But in order to make the shares attractive to bottom-line-minded investors, the companies had to "spin-off" their social welfare components as separate entities. Before SPC could make its mid-1993 flotation, it separated into Shanghai Petrochemical Company, Ltd., which got all the production units, and Jinshan Industrial, which oversaw other interests like schools and hospitals. SPC also had to adopt international accounting principles including stating its after-tax profit as opposed to the traditional standard of "tax plus profit."

Having cleared these and other hurdles, SPC became one of China's first and largest companies to make an initial public stock offering in July 1993, when the government sold 29.6 percent of its equity via H shares traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange and American Depository Receipts (ADRs) offered on the New York stock market. The H shares debuted at about HK$1.40, while each ADR represented 100 class H shares, and was initially priced at US$20.39 apiece. Seeking ground-floor equities in the so-called "market of one billion," investors quickly oversubscribed the offering. SPC planned to use the proceeds to pay down about US$123 million in foreign debts and fund new capital projects.

Considerations for the 1990s and Beyond

SPC's stock performed well in the mid-1990s, as its net income multiplied from RMB443.1 million in 1992 to over RMB2 billion by 1995. Far Eastern Economic Review's Henny Sender warned that "[the stock] was blessed less by its own strength than by the fact that demand for China shares far exceeded supply" in those heady days.

Sender was by no means the only analyst to sound the alarm with regard to SPC and its securities. For notwithstanding the company and country's admirable strides toward economic liberalism, several areas of concern remained. For example, although SPC was relieved of the majority of its social welfare responsibilities prior to its initial stock offering, it was still required to "allocate a portion of its profits to its public-welfare fund," according to a July 1993 brief in the Far Eastern Economic Review. Furthermore, SPC's reliance on SINOPEC for subsidized crude oil, which constituted over half of its production expenses, undermined its entire balance sheet. For while SPC proved profitable in the early 1990s, some of that prosperity was clearly due to the steep discount on crude it received from SINOPEC. Just as the government relaxed controls on the price of SPC's products (a benefit), it could easily rescind its discounts on crude (a detriment). As the Far Eastern Economic Review's Ivan Png and Changqui Wu pointed out in October 1995, "a company like Shanghai Petrochemical may be making millions of dollars without really succeeding in market terms." Issues such as these must have weighed heavily on the minds of any SPC investor.

In 1995, Wu Yixin succeeded Wang Jiming, who moved on to the presidency of SINOPEC, as SPC President. Soon after taking office, Wu Yixin revealed that the company would require US$9.3 billion to pay for the next three years' expansion programs. In light of the scarcity of government funds for these projects, SPC issued 500 million new H shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange to generate over RMB4 billion (about US$500 million) in mid-1996. The floatation reduced SINOPEC's share of SPC to 64 percent. The capital investment program included capacity increases of both ethylene and synthetic fibers to 1 million t/y by 2005. By the year 2000, SPC forecast sales of RMB20 billion and income before taxes of RMB5 million.

Related information about Shanghai

31°13N 121°25E; pop (2000e) 9 158 000, administrative region 13 876 000; municipality area 5800 km²/2239 sq mi. Port in E China, on the Yellow Sea, on Huangpu and Wusong Rivers; largest city in China; developed in the Yuan period as a cotton centre; trading centre in the 17th–18th-c; opened to foreign trade, 1842, and developed as the principal centre for European influence in China; by the 1940s, world's fifth largest port; Japanese occupation, 1937–45; power centre of Jiang Qing in the Cultural Revolution, 1966–76; two airports; two airfields; rail and sea links to other cities; university (1895) and several other higher education institutions; oil refining, shipbuilding, engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, paper, publishing; People's Park, People's Square, Jade Buddha Temple (1882), Industrial Exhibition Hall, Museum of Natural History, Songjiang County Square Pagoda and Dragon Wall (11th-c), Longhua Temple (c.7th-c); Yu Yuan (Garden of Happiness), 1577, the basis for ‘willow pattern’ chinaware.

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Shanghai (??)
A section of Shanghai's Pudong

Location in the People's Republic of China
Basic Information
Origin of name: ? Sh?n
Area: 6,340.5 km² (31st)
Population(2004): 17,420,000 (25th) Municipality
9,838,000 Urban Area, 2001 est.
Density(2004): 2750/km² (1st) Municipality
GDP (2004):
 - per capita		 CNY 745.0 billion (7th)
CNY 42,800 (1st)
HDI (2005)
 0.909 (1st) — high
Major nationalities (2000): Han - 99%
Hui - 0.4%
City flower: Yulan magnolia
(Magnolia denudata)
Elevation: 0 - 103.4 m
Coordinates: 31|10|N|121|28|E|type:city(3,390,444)}}
Postal code: 200000 - 202100
Area code: +86/21
License plate prefixes : ?A, B, D, E
?C (outer suburbs)
ISO 3166-2: cn-31
Time zone: UTC+8
Website: www.shanghai.gov.cn
Government
Administration Type: Municipality
CPCshanghai
Committee Secretary:		 Han Zheng (acting)
Mayor: Han Zheng
County-level divisions: 18 Districts and 1 County
Township-level divisions: 220 Towns and Villages



Shanghai (; Shanghainese: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the People's Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world. Administratively, Shanghai is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level status.

Originally a sleepy fishing town, Shanghai became China's most important city by the 20th century and was the centre of popular culture, vice, intellectual discourse and political intrigue during the Republic of China. Shanghai once became the third largest financial centre in the world, ranking after New York City and London, and the largest commercial city in the Far East in the late 19th century and early 20th century. After the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished under heavy central government taxation and much of its bourgeois elements were purged. Following the central government's authorization of market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai quickly surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growth.

History

Pre-19th century

Before the formation of Shanghai city, Shanghai was part of Songjiang county (???), governed by Suzhou prefecture (???). From the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Shanghai gradually became a busy seaport, outgrowing its political jurisdictions (for instance, Songjiang (??) today is one of 18 districts within Shanghai).
A city wall was built in AD 1553, which is generally regarded as the beginning of the city of Shanghai. Before the 19th century, Shanghai was not a major city, so in contrast to other major Chinese cities today, there are fewer ancient Chinese landmarks to be found in Shanghai. However, the few cultural landmarks in Shanghai are very ancient and typically date to the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, because present-day Shanghai is within the historic cultural center of the Wu Kingdom (222-280).

During the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai became an important port regionally for the Yangtze and Huangpu rivers and a sea port for the nearby Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, although overseas commerce was still forbidden at that time. In the later years of the Qianlong era, Shiliupu (???), now in Huangpu District, was already the largest port in East Asia.

19th to early 20th century

The importance of Shanghai grew radically in the 19th century, as the city's strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River made it an ideal location for trade with the West.

During the First Opium War in the early-19th century, British forces temporarily held Shanghai. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which saw the treaty ports, Shanghai included, opened for international trade. The Treaty of the Bogue signed in 1843, and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia signed in 1844 together saw foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil, which officially lasted until 1943 but was essentially defunct by the late 1930s. From the twenties to the late 30s Shanghai was a so-called 'sin city'. Gangsters wielded a great deal of power and ran casinos and brothels.

The Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850, and in 1853 Shanghai was occupied by a triad offshoot of the rebels, called the Small Swords Society. This period saw a large influx of migrants from Europe and North America, who called themselves "Shanghighlanders".

The Sino-Japanese War fought 1894-95 over control of Korea concluded with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which saw Japan emerge as an additional foreign power in Shanghai. Under the Republic of China, Shanghai was made a special city in 1927, and a municipality in May 1930. The Japanese Navy bombed Shanghai on January 28, 1932, nominally in an effort to crush down Chinese student protests of the Manchurian Incident and the subsequent Japanese occupation. The two sides fought to a standstill and a ceasefire was brokered in May. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city fell after the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, and was occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945.

During World War II

During World War II, Shanghai was a centre for refugees from Europe. However, under pressure from their Nazi allies, the Japanese ghettoised the Jewish refugees in late 1941 in what came to be known as the Shanghai ghetto, and hunger and infectious diseases such as amoebic dysentery became rife.

Communist rule

On May 27, 1949, Shanghai came under communist control and was one of the only two former Republic of China (ROC) municipalities not merged into neighbouring provinces over the next decade (the other being Beijing). During the 1950s and 1960s, Shanghai became an industrial center and center for revolutionary leftism. Shanghai was not permitted to initiate economic reforms until 1991.

Political power in Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to higher positions within the PRC central government.In the 1990s, there was what was often described as the politically right-of-center "Shanghai clique," which included the president of the PRC Jiang Zemin and the premier of the PRC Zhu Rongji. Starting in 1992, the central government under Jiang Zemin, a former Mayor of Shanghai, began reducing the tax burden on Shanghai and encouraging both foreign and domestic investment in order to promote it as the economic hub of East Asia and to encourage its role as gateway of investment to the Chinese interior. Many of China's top government officials in Beijing are known to have risen in Shanghai in the 1980s on a platform that was critical of the extreme leftism of the Cultural Revolution, giving them the tag "Shanghai Clique" during the 1990s. Four Shanghai mayors eventually went on to take prominent Central Government positions, including former President Jiang Zemin and former Premier Zhu Rongji. The top administrative jobs are always appointed directly by the Central Government.

The current Shanghai government under Mayor Han Zheng has openly advocated transparency in the city's government.

Administration


Shanghai is administratively equal to a province and is divided into 19 county-level divisions: 18 districts and 1 county. Prominent central business areas include Lujiazui on the east bank of the Huangpu River, and The Bund and Hongqiao areas in the west bank of the Huangpu River. The city hall and major administration units are located in Huangpu District, which also serve as a commercial area, including the famous Nanjing Road. Other major commercial areas include the classy Xintiandi and Huaihai Road in Luwan district and Xujiahui in Xuhui District. Many universities in Shanghai are located in residential areas of Yangpu District and Putuo District.

Nine of the districts govern Puxi (literally West Bank), or the older part of urban Shanghai on the west bank of the Huangpu River. Q?)

Pudong (East Bank), or the newer part of urban and suburban Shanghai on the east bank of the Huangpu River, is governed by:

  • Pudong New District (???? Chuansha County until 1992

Eight of the districts govern suburbs, satellite towns, and rural areas further away from the urban core:

  • Baoshan District (??? Baoshan County until 1988
  • Minhang District (??? Shanghai County until 1992
  • Jiading District (??? Jiading County until 1992
  • Jinshan District (??? Jinshan County until 1997
  • Songjiang District (??? Songjiang County until 1998
  • Qingpu District (??? Qingpu County until 1999
  • Nanhui District (??? Nanhui County until 2001
  • Fengxian District (??? Fengxian County until 2001Chongming Island, an island at the mouth of the Yangtze, is governed by:
  • Chongming County (??? Chóngmíng Xiàn)

As of 2003, these county-level divisions are further divided into the following 220 township-level divisions: 114 towns, 3 townships, 103 subdistricts. Those are in turn divided into the following village-level divisions: 3,393 neighborhood committees and 2,037 village committees.

List of towns:

  • Anting, Jiading District
  • Huamu, Pudong New District
  • Pengpu, Zhabei District
  • Beicai, Pudong New District
  • Qibao, Minhang District
  • Sheshan, Songjiang District
  • Sijing, Songjiang District
  • Nanqiao, Fengxian District
  • Xinzhuang, Minhang District
  • Jiangwan, Yangpu District

Economy and demographics

Shanghai is often regarded as the center of finance and trade in mainland China. In terms of container traffic, it is the third busiest port in the world, following Singapore and Hong Kong.

The 2000 census put the population of Shanghai Municipality to 16.738 million, including the floating population, which made up 3.871 million. however, more than 5 million more people work and live in Shanghai undocumented, and of the 5 million, some 4 million belong to the floating population of temporary migrant workers, a large proportion of whom are from Anhui Province as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces. The average life expectancy in 2003 was 79.80 years, 77.78 for men and 81.81 for women.
Shanghai and Hong Kong have had a recent rivalry over which city is to be the economic center of China. Hong Kong on the other hand, possessed an unparalleled GDP of ¥310,021 (ca. Hong Kong has the advantage of a stronger legal system, international market integration, superior economic freedom, greater banking and service expertise. Shanghai has stronger links to both the Chinese interior and the central government, in addition to a stronger base in manufacturing and technology. For a gallery of these unique architecure designs, see Shanghai (architecture images).

The bulk of Shanghai buildings being constructed today are high-rise apartments of various height, color and design. There is now a strong focus by city planners to develop more "green areas" (public parks) among the apartment complexes in order to increase the quality of life for Shanghai's residents, quite in accordance to the "Better City - Better Life" theme of Shanghai's Expo 2010.

Geography and climate

Shanghai faces the East China Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean), and is bisected by the Huangpu River. Puxi contains the city proper on the western side of Huangpu River, while an entirely new financial district has been erected on the eastern bank of the Huangpu in Pudong.

Geographical coordinates:

Shanghai experiences all four seasons, with freezing temperatures during the winter season and a 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) average high during the hottest months of July and August. The city has a few Typhoon spells during the year, none of which in recent years have caused considerable damage.

Astronomical phenomena

The previous total solar eclipse to be seen from the center of Shanghai occurred on May 10, 1575.

The next total solar eclipse that will be seen from Shanghai will be solar eclipse of 2009-Jul-22.

Wikisource has an article about solar eclipses as seen from Shanghai from 2001 to 3000. wikisource.org/wiki/Solar_eclipses_as_seen_from_Shanghai

Media

Shanghai is served by television and radio stations that are owned and operated by the Shanghai Media Group. The list of radio stations are shown as follows:

  • Shanghai Television Stations:
    • Dragon TV
    • China Business Network
    • STV-News
    • STV-Life&Fashion
    • STV-TV Drama
    • STV-Sports
    • STV-Documentary
    • OTV-News&Entertainment
    • OTV-Arts
    • OTV-Music
    • OTV-Drama + Oriental CJ Shopping
    • OTV-Kids
    • Eastern Movie
    • Toonmax

Also, CCTV serves as the national network.

  • Shanghai Radio Stations
Frequency/Internet
 Description
990 AM
 News
648 AM
 Traffic
1296 AM
 Eastern China Regional News
792 AM
 Shanghai Local News
101.7 FM
 Popular Music
103.7 FM
 Love Music
94.7 FM
 Classical Music
97.7 FM
 Economic/Business News
96.8 FM
 Comedy Channel
1197 AM
 Marine Channel
94.0 FM
 Sports News


Transportation


Shanghai has an extensive public transportation system, largely based on buses, and a rapidly expanding metro system.

Shanghai has the world's most extensive bus system with nearly one thousand bus lines .

Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao and Pudong International, which has the second highest (combined) traffic in China, following Hong Kong International Airport. (SMT), German Transrapid constructed the first commercial maglev railway in the world in 2002, from Shanghai's Longyang Road subway station to Pudong International Airport. The 30km trip takes 7 minutes and 21 seconds and reaches a maximum speed of 431 km/h (267.8 miles per hour).

As of December 2005, Shanghai's port, including the newly opened Yangshan deep water port (?????), is the largest in the world. What is currently longest cross-sea bridge of the world, the Donghai Bridge (????) with a total length 32.5km, links Shanghai on the mainland to the Yangshan islands.
Two railways intersect in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway (Beijing-Shanghai) Railway passing through Nanjing (???), and Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway (??? Shanghai has two main railway stations, Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station. A maglev train route to Hangzhou (Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train ??????) will begin construction in 2006 and is planned to be finished in 2008. Tunnels and bridges are used to link Puxi to Pudong.

Culture

Language

The vernacular language is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese; The Shanghainese dialect today is a mixture of standard Wu Chinese as spoken in Suzhou, with the dialects of Ningbo and other nearby regions whose peoples have migrated to Shanghai in large numbers since the 20th Century.

Nearly all Shanghainese under the age of 40 can speak Mandarin fluently. Haipai) is a very important Chinese school of traditional arts during the Qing Dynasty and the whole of 20th century. The most well-known figures from this school are Ren Xiong (??), Ren Yi (???), Zhao Zhiqian (???), Wu Changshuo (???), Sha Menghai (???, calligraphist), Pan Tianshou (???), Fu Baoshi (???). It was also the intellectual battleground between socialist writers who concentrated on critical realism (pioneered by Lu Xun and Mao Dun) and the more "bourgeois", more romantically and aesthetically inclined writers (such as Shi Zhecun, Shao Xunmei, Ye Lingfeng, Eileen Chang). Another film star, Jiang Qing, went on to become Madame Mao Zedong. Nearly all registered Shanghainese residents are descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late 19th and the early 20th Century. The Revolution was a humbling experience for Shanghai as a whole, as it was brought into line by the Communist regime, whose ideology favoured grass-root agriculture and industry, and opposed bourgeois excesses, which Shanghai stood for in the eyes of many.

Shikumen

One uniquely Shanghainese cultural element is the shikumen (???) residences, which are two or three-story townhouses, with the front yard protected by a high brick wall. The whole resembles terrace houses or townhouses commonly seen in Anglo-American countries, but distinguished by the tall, heavy brick wall in front of each house. Many of these were hastily built and were akin to slums, while others were of sturdier construction and featured all modern amenities such as the flush toilet.

During and after World War II, massive population increases in Shanghai led many shikumen houses to be heavily subdivided.

Cultural sites

  • The Bund
  • Shanghai Museum
  • Shanghai Grand Theatre
  • Yuyuan Gardens
  • Jing'an Temple, first built during the Three Kingdoms period
  • Longhua temple, largest temple in Shanghai, also built during the Three Kingdoms period
  • Jade Buddha Temple
  • Xujiahui Cathedral, largest Catholic cathedral in Shanghai
  • Dongjiadu Cathedral
  • She Shan Cathedral
  • The Orthodox Eastern Church
  • Xiaodaoyuan (Mini-Peach Orchard) Mosque
  • Songjiang Mosque
  • Ohel Rachel Synagogue
  • Lu Xun Memorial
  • Shikumen site of the First CPC Congress
  • Residence of Sun Yat-sen
  • Residence of Chiang Kai-shek
  • Shanghai residence of Qing Dynasty Viceroy and General Li Hongzhang
  • Ancient rivertowns of Zhujiajiao and Zhouzhuang on the outskirts of Shanghai
  • Wen Miao Market
  • Yunnan Road
  • Flowers and birds: Jiang yi lu market
  • Cheongsam: Chang le lu Cheongsam Street
  • Curio Market: Dong Tai Lu Curio Market
  • Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe

Colleges and universities

Shanghai is home to many of China's top and oldest universities.

National

  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University (??????) (founded in 1896)
    • Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (formerly Shanghai Second Medical University, founded in 1896) (?????????, ?????????)
  • Fudan University (????) (founded in 1905)
    • Fudan University Shanghai Medical College (formerly Shanghai Medical University, founded in 1927) (?????????, ???????????
  • Tongji University (????) (founded in 1907)
  • East China Normal University (??????)
  • Shanghai Maritime University (??????)
  • Shanghai University (????)
  • Second Military Medical University (??????)
  • East China University of Science and Technology (??????)
  • East China University of Politics and Law (??????)
  • Donghua University (????)
  • Shanghai International Studies University (???????)
  • Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (??????)
  • China Europe International Business School (????????)

Public

  • Shanghai Normal University (??????)
  • Shanghai Conservatory of Music (??????)
  • Shanghai Theater Academy (??????)
  • Shanghai University of Electric Power (??????)
  • University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (??????)
  • Shanghai University of Engineering Sciences (????????)
  • Shanghai Institute of Technology (????????)
  • Shanghai Fisheries University (??????)
  • Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (????????)
  • Shanghai Institute of Physical Education (??????)
  • Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce (????????)
  • Shanghai Sencond Polytechnic University (????????)

Private

  • Shanda University (??????)

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

Media portrayals

Literature

  • Han Bangqing (???), The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai ((zh-tp|t=???????|p=Haishang Hua Liezhuan)), a novel following the lives of Shanghainese sing-song girls (courtesans who sing, dance and may provide sexual services) and the timeless decadence surrounding them. The novel was first published in 1892 during the last two decades of the Qing Dynasty, with the dialogue completely in vernacular Wu Chinese (Shanghainese). The highly popular novel set a precedent for modern Chinese literature and was later translated into Mandarin and English by Eileen Chang.
  • Besides Eileen Chang, other Shanghainese "petit bourgeois" writers in the first half of twentieth century: Shi Zhecun, Liu Na'ou and Mu Shiyang, Shao Xunmei and Ye Lingfeng.
  • Mao Dun, a socialist writer and playwright, is famous for his Ziye, set in Shanghai.
  • Ba Jin, one of the most renowned Chinese writer of the last century, lived and worked in Shanghai, and set some of his works in the city.
  • Lu Xun, regarded as the leading leftist voice in pre-1949 Shanghai, lived and worked in Shanghai.
  • One of the great Chinese novels of the twentieth century, Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged is partially set in Shanghai and has mostly Shanghainese characters.
  • Noel Coward wrote his novel Private Lives while staying at Shanghai's Cathay Hotel.
  • André Malraux, La Condition Humaine, 1933 (Man's Fate, 1934), a novel about the failed communist revolution that took place in Shanghai in 1927 and the existential choices the losers have to face. Malraux won the 1933 Prix Goncourt of literature for the novel.
  • Tom Bradby's 2002 historical detective novel The Master of Rain is set in the Shanghai of 1926.
  • Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel The Diamond Age is set in an ultra-capitalist Shanghai of the future.

Films

  • Code 46 (2003), directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Tim Robbins
  • Le Drame de Shanghaï (1938), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, filmed in France and in Saigon
  • Eighteen Springs (Bansheng yuan, 1998), directed by Ann Hui On-wah
  • Empire of the Sun (1987), directed by Steven Spielberg
  • Everlasting Regret (2005), directed by Stanley Kwan
  • Fearless (2006), directed by Ronny Yu, starring Jet Li
  • Fist of Legend (Jingwu yingxiong, 1994), action movie starring Jet Li, a remake of Fist of Fury
  • Flowers of Shanghai (Haishang hua, 1998), directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
  • Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), in which Anguirus attacks the city and destroys the Oriental Pearl Tower
  • Kung Fu Hustle (Gongfu, 2004), directed by Stephen Chow
  • Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee and based on the novel by Eileen Chang
  • Mission Impossible 3 (2006), starring Tom Cruise
  • The Painted Veil (2006, in production), starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts
  • Perhaps Love (2005), directed by Peter Chan
  • Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie, 2003), directed by Ye Lou, starring Zhang Ziyi
  • A Romance in Shanghai (?????) (1996), starring Fann Wong
  • Shanghai Express (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich
  • The Shanghai Gesture (1941), directed by Josef von Sternberg
  • Shanghai Grand (1996), starring Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau and Ning Jing
  • Shanghai Triad (Yao a yao yao dao waipo qiao, 1995), directed by Zhang Yimou
  • Suzhou River (Suzhou he, 2000), directed by Ye Lou
  • Temptress Moon (Feng yue, 1996), directed by Chen Kaige
  • Ultraviolet (2006), starring Milla Jovovich
  • The White Countess (2005), with Ralph Fiennes

More Photos


Image:Shanghaid01.jpg|Shanghai Puxi (west bank) aerial view
Image:Shanghai ashish100 pudong.jpg|Shanghai Pudong (east bank) aerial view
Image:Lujiazui skyline, Pudong, Shanghai.JPG|Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone
Image:Huangpu River-The Bund.JPG|Pudong seen from the Huangpu River
Image:A maglev train coming out, Pudong International Airport, Shanghai.jpg|A maglev train is coming out of the Pudong International Airport

Image:Shanghai port, Waigaoqiao.jpg|A shipside in Waigaoqiao, Shanghai Port
Image:Huaihai2.jpg|Commercial advertisements at Hong Kong Plaza
Image:Shanghaid04.jpg|An old street (2005 photo)
Image:doraemon5 confucius.jpg|Yuyuan pagoda
Image:Yuyuan Gardens - water reflection.JPG|Yuyuan Gardens, water is an important aspect in Shanghainese gardens
Image:Martin_O'Connell_tiantong_road.jpg|Tiantong Road, displays a mixture of old and new architectures in Shanghai
Image:Shanghaid03.jpg|Street and traffic in Shanghai
Image:Shanghaitraffic.jpg|Shanghai traffic (buses, cars and taxis) on a Sunday afternoon
Image:Portsashish100.jpg|Yangpu Port (left) along the banks of the Huangpu River. The city is now paying greater attention toward environmental and quality of life concerns.unverifiedimage-->
Image:Shanghai s.jpg|A close-up of a skyscraper in Shanghai
Image:Bank of Shanghai, Jia Ding.png|The Bank of Shanghai

Sister cities

Shanghai has city partnerships with the following cities:

  • Since 1973: Yokohama, Japan
  • Since 1974: Osaka, Japan
  • Since 1979: Milan, Italy
  • Since 1979: Rotterdam, the Netherlands
  • Since 1979: San Francisco, United States
  • Since 1980: Zagreb, Croatia
  • Since 1982: Hamhung, North Korea
  • Since 1984: Antwerp, Belgium
  • Since 1984: Karachi, Pakistan
  • Since 1985: Chicago, United States
  • Since 1985: Montreal, Canada
  • Since 1986: Hamburg, Germany
  • Since 1986: Casablanca, Morocco
  • Since 1987: Marseille, France
  • Since 1988: São Paulo, Brazil
  • Since 1988: Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • Since 1989: ?stanbul, Turkey
  • Since 1990: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Since 1993: Busan, South Korea
  • Since 1994: Dunedin, New Zealand
  • Since 2000: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Since 2000: Liverpool, England
  • Since 2002: Constan?a, Romania
  • Since 2005: Cork, Ireland

Miscellaneous

The tallest structure in China, the distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower, is located in Shanghai. The Jin Mao tower located nearby is mainland China's tallest skyscraper, and ranks fifth in the world.

Shanghai will be the host of the Expo 2010 World's Fair between May to October 2010

Professional sports teams in Shanghai include:

  • Chinese Football Association Super League** Shanghai Shenhua
    • Shanghai Zobon
    • Inter Shanghai
  • Chinese Football Association Jia League
    • Shanghai Jiucheng
  • Chinese Basketball Association
    • Shanghai Sharks

The city has hosted the first Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit on 26 September 2004.

See also

  • Shanghainese
  • Shanghai woman
  • Thames Town
  • Shanghai cuisine
  • Shanghaiing, verb derived from Shanghai
  • Shanghai tunnels
  • Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

References

Additional topics

Company HistoryChemical Products Manufacturing

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