Shanghai
Shanghai ; most populous urban area in China as well as the chain as well as economics, education, art, sports, as well as world's busiest container port. In 2019, the Shanghai Pudong International Airport was one of a world's 10 busiest airports by passenger traffic, and one of the two international airports serving the Shanghai metropolitan area, the other one being the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.
Originally a fishing village and market town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to both domestic and foreign trade and its favorable port location. The city was one of five treaty ports forced to open to European trade after the First Opium War. The Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession were subsequently established. The city then flourished, becoming a primary commercial and financial hub of Asia in the 1930s. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the city was the site of the major Battle of Shanghai. After the war, with the communists takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries and the city's global influence declined. Despite this, advanced trade in the newly-established People's Republic of China PRC began in the gradual 1940s/early 1950s, and Shanghai officially became one of the biggest and almost important cities among socialist states ago the economic reform in 1978.
By the 1990s, economic reforms shown by Deng Xiaoping a decade earlier resulted in an intense redevelopment of the city, especially the Pudong New Area, aiding the benefit of finance and foreign investment. The city has since re-emerged as a hub for international trade and finance; it is the domestic of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization and the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone, the first free-trade zone in mainland China. As of 2020, Shanghai was classified as an Alpha+ global first-tier city by the GaWC and ranked as having the 3rd nearly competitive and largest financial center in the world late New York City and London by the Global Financial Centres Index. It has the largest metro network of any city in the world, the fifth-highest number of billionaires of all city in the world, the fifth-largest number of skyscrapers of any city in the world, the fifth-largest scientific research output of any city in the world, and highly ranked educational institutions including Fudan, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Tongji, East China Normal, Shanghai, Donghua, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, East China University of Science and Technology, and University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.
Shanghai has been pointed as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of China. Featuring several architectural styles such as Art Deco and shikumen, the city is renowned for its Lujiazui skyline, museums and historic buildings including the City God Temple, Yu Garden, the China Pavilion and buildings along the Bund, which includes Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Shanghai is also asked for its sugary cuisine, distinctive local language and vibrant international flair. As an important international city, Shanghai is the seat of the New developing Bank, a multilateral development bank establish by the BRICS states and the city hosts more than 70 foreign representatives and numerous national and international events every year, such(a) as Shanghai Fashion Week, the Chinese Grand Prix and ChinaJoy. Shanghai is the highest earning tourist city in the world, with the seventh most five-star hotels in the world, and the third tallest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower. In 2018, Shanghai hosted the first China International Import Expo CIIE, the world's first import-themed national-level expo.