Shanghai
Municipality with provincial status (pop.,1999 est.:city,8,937,175; 2000 est.:municipality,16,740,000),east-central China.
The municipality,on the East China Sea,is bordered by Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and has an area of 2,400 sq mi (6,200 sq km).The city is located on the Huangpu River,which gives oceangoing vessels access to it.Shanghai was settled c.AD 1000,and later under the Ming dynasty it was an area of intense cotton production.This changed when it became the first Chinese port opened to trade with the West after China's defeat by Britain in the Opium Wars (1842); it came to dominate the nation's commerce.The site of the Chinese Communist Party's founding in 1921,it saw severe fighting in the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45 and was occupied by Japan during World War II.Since the communist victory in 1949,it has become China's chief industrial and commercial centre and one of its leading centres of higher education and scientific research.
上海
中國(guó)華中東部直轄市.濱臨東海,與江蘇省和浙江省交界.地處黃浦江畔,遠(yuǎn)洋輪船能靠近城市.約自1000年起即有人定居,后來(lái)在明朝期間,此地成為密集的棉花產(chǎn)地.1842年當(dāng)中國(guó)在鴉片戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中被英國(guó)擊敗后,上海成為中國(guó)首批向西方開(kāi)放通商的港口后,原為棉產(chǎn)地的形勢(shì)開(kāi)始轉(zhuǎn)變,開(kāi)始主導(dǎo)國(guó)家的商業(yè).1921年中國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨在此地成立；中日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)期間(1937～1945),在上海爆發(fā)劇烈的戰(zhàn)斗；第二次世界大戰(zhàn),日本占領(lǐng)此地.自共產(chǎn)黨于1949年獲勝后,成為中國(guó)首要的工業(yè)與商業(yè)中心,以及高等教育和科學(xué)研究的領(lǐng)先之地.