50 Fun Facts About Shanghai

The two characters of Shanghai's name together mean what?

Historians think the area lay below sea level in the Tang era, so the land literally appeared to be on the sea; the name was fixed in 1280.

Which river bisects Shanghai, dividing Puxi from Pudong?

Legend says Lord Chunshen ordered it dug in the Warring States period; twelve bridges and fourteen tunnels now cross it.

Shanghai's Chinese abbreviation Hù comes from a word for what?

The character appears on the city's licence plates; another old name, Shēn, honours Lord Chunshen whose fief covered the area.

Shanghai's first city wall, built in 1554, was intended to protect the town from whom?

The wall stood 10 metres high and 5 km round; it was demolished in 1912 because it blocked the city's growth.

Which 1842 agreement ending the First Opium War opened Shanghai as one of five treaty ports?

Britain, France and the United States then set up settlements outside the walled Chinese city.

In 1863 the British and American settlements merged to form what?

The French stayed out and kept their own concession to the south and southwest.

The Chinese Communist Party was founded in July 1921 in which part of Shanghai?

Four years later the May Thirtieth Movement erupted after a Japanese foreman shot a Chinese mill worker.

Long-term foreign residents of 1930s Shanghai called themselves what?

By 1932 the city was home to 70,000 foreigners, including some 20,000 White Russians.

Which Japanese vice-consul in Lithuania issued thousands of visas to Jewish refugees bound for Shanghai?

The refugees were confined to the Shanghai Ghetto in Hongkou after Pearl Harbor and freed by the Chinese Army in 1945.

Which leader permitted Shanghai to begin economic reforms in 1990, opening up Pudong?

That year the central government named Shanghai the 'Dragon Head' of reform and opening up; the new financial district rose on the east bank.

Shanghai's harbour holds what world ranking?

The city also hosts the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Asia-Pacific's largest by market value, and mainland China's first free-trade zone.

Shanghai's urban population of about thirty million makes it roughly which-largest city in the world?

It is China's most populous city and a provincial-level municipality, one of only three not merged into provinces in 1949; the 2010 Expo alone drew tens of millions.

The word 'Bund', for Shanghai's famous waterfront, was borrowed into English from which language?

It originally meant a dyke or embankment; floods later prompted a levee that leaves the walkway some 10 metres above street level.

The Bund's row of early 20th-century buildings faces which modern skyscraper district across the river?

From the 1860s to the 1930s it was the power centre of the foreign establishment; the Art Deco Sassoon House is now the Peace Hotel.

The Oriental Pearl Tower, built 1991–94, stands how tall including its antenna?

It was China's tallest structure until 2007 and has fifteen observation decks; its designers cited a Tang poem about a pipa player.

The Shanghai Tower, completed in 2015, rises to what height?

It is China's tallest building and the world's third tallest, and it held the record for fastest elevators until 2017.

Which American firm designed the Shanghai Tower, with Shanghainese architect Jun Xia leading the team?

Its twisting tiered form sits beside the Jin Mao Tower and the World Financial Center, the world's first cluster of three adjacent supertalls.

The J Hotel on the Shanghai Tower's 120th floor claims to be the world's what?

Its 165 rooms opened in 2021 at the very top of the building, according to CNN.

Yu Garden in the Old City was first built in 1559 by Pan Yunduan as a comfort for whom?

He began the Ming-era garden after failing an imperial exam; its Exquisite Jade Rock is a porous five-ton boulder said to have been salvaged from the river.

The Shanghai maglev, opened in 2004, links Longyang Road with which airport?

It was the world's first commercial high-speed maglev; the technology came from ThyssenKrupp and Siemens.

Before May 2021 the Shanghai maglev, the world's fastest commercial train, cruised at what speed?

It has since been slowed to 300 km/h; the line is not part of the Metro network.

As of 2025, the Shanghai Metro, opened in 1993, was described as what?

As of 2025 it had 19 lines, 508 stations and 808 km of track; only Beijing and Tianjin opened rapid transit earlier in mainland China.

Shanghai's two commercial airports are Pudong and which other, mainly for domestic flights?

Pudong handled 74 million passengers in 2018; a new airport link line joined the two in December 2024.

Expo 2010 in Shanghai set a record for attendance with roughly how many visitors, in millions?

Some 246 countries and organisations took part on the largest Expo site ever, 5.28 square km.

What was the theme of Expo 2010 Shanghai?

Its emblem reworked the Chinese character for 'world' into three people; the China Pavilion still stands from the fair.

Shanghai's Disney park, opened in June 2016, features which distinction among the company's parks?

The Enchanted Storybook Castle anchors eight themed lands including Zootopia; the park drew 14.7 million visitors in 2024.

Nanjing Road, Shanghai's main shopping street, is named after a city that was once capital of what?

Its western half was once Bubbling Well Road, built outside the International Settlement; the two met at the old Shanghai Race Club.

Shanghai-style xiaolongbao are associated with which former village, now in Jiading District?

In Shanghainese they are xiaolong mantou; the Suzhou style is up to twice as big and sweeter.

Which of these is a signature dish of Shanghai's Benbang cuisine, alongside xiaolongbao and hairy crab?

Local cooking draws on the neighbouring provinces, as does the Shanghainese language.

The local language, Shanghainese, belongs to which branch of Chinese?

It is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin and close to the speech of Suzhou and Ningbo; fluency among the young has been declining.

The traditional Shanghai townhouse with a heavy wooden door in a stone arch is called what?

The name means 'stone storage door'; these grey-brick lane houses of two or three storeys were built for the crowded concessions.

China's first short film, The Difficult Couple, was made in Shanghai in which year?

The country's first feature, An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather, followed in 1923; the wartime exodus of Shanghai filmmakers helped build Hong Kong's industry.

Which NBA star was developed by the city's Sharks basketball club?

The city's Super League football clubs are Shenhua and Port.

Since 2004 the Shanghai International Circuit has hosted which Formula One race?

The city also stages the ATP Shanghai Masters tennis tournament and the WGC-HSBC Champions golf event.

Which two of the city's universities belong to the elite C9 League?

Both rank in the world's top 35 research universities; the city is second globally for scientific output.

Shanghai's contemporary nickname Módū, first used in a 1924 Japanese novel, translates as what?

English nicknames include the Paris of the East, the Pearl of the Orient and the New York of China.

Chongming, at the northern tip of the municipality, ranks as what?

It grew to that size through 20th-century expansion and was the last county to become a district, in 2015.

Shanghai's skyscrapers must be built on deep concrete piles because of what?

The land is Yangtze silt and reclaimed ground; the Oriental Pearl Tower's technique was reused for the Jin Mao Tower.

Which province borders Shanghai municipality to the south?

The other neighbour lies to the west and north; the East China Sea is to the east.

Which two temples, founded in the Three Kingdoms period, are Shanghai's oldest Buddhist sites?

Longhua is the city's largest temple; the City God Temple in the Old City dates from 1602.

A City God Temple was built in Shanghai in 1602, an honour normally reserved for what kind of city?

Scholars take it as a sign of the county seat's economic importance even then.

Which emperor moved the provincial customs office to Shanghai in 1732?

Kangxi had lifted the ban on ocean-going ships in 1684; by 1735 Shanghai was the lower Yangtze's main port.

On what date did the People's Liberation Army take control of Shanghai in 1949?

Most foreign firms then moved their offices to Hong Kong.

In 2022 the whole of Shanghai was locked down from 5 April until which date because of COVID-19?

Food-supply chains broke down and shortages spread across the city.

Shanghai was elevated to a municipality on 7 July of which year, starting its 'golden age'?

The new city of 494 square km planned a fresh centre at Jiangwan, outside the foreign concessions.

Shanghai's Old City fell in 1853 to rebels from which group, before the Qing retook it in 1855?

Taiping rebels attacked twice in 1860–62 and razed the eastern and southern suburbs but failed to take the city.

How many Fortune Global 500 companies were headquartered in Shanghai as of 2024?

That is the fourth-most of any city; the metro area's output neared 13 trillion yuan in 2022.

The Shanghai International Film Festival, an A-category festival, was founded in which year?

It recalls the 1930s studio boom that made stars of Ruan Lingyu and Hu Die.

Which 32-kilometre crossing links Yangshan deep-water port to the Shanghai mainland?

Yangshan was built in 2005 because the river was unsuitable for the largest container ships; the port became the world's busiest in 2010.

In September 2013 Shanghai launched mainland China's first what?

Hainan has since overtaken it in land area, but The Banker reported Shanghai drew the most financial-sector foreign investment in Asia-Pacific that year.