Shanghai, situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is China's largest city. The city is one of the most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers of China. Administratively, Shanghai is one of four municipalities of the People's Republic of China that have provincial-level status. Shanghai is also home to the world's busiest port, followed by Singapore and Rotterdam.
Shanghai has been a political hub of China for many years. 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. Many observers of Chinese politics view the more right-leaning Shanghai Clique as an opposing and competing faction of the current Chinese administration under Hu Jintao. Shanghai's top jobs, the Party Chief and the position of Mayor, has always been prominent on a national scale. 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.
Historically very western, Shanghai is increasingly a critical center of communication with the western world, examples include the opening of the Pac-Med Medical Exchange in June of 2004. Pac-Med is a clearinghouse of medical data and a link between the Chinese and westernized medical infrastructures. In medicine and other humanitarian fields, China is actively seeking input of first world nations to improve statistical living conditions and trade status.
Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao and Pudong International, which has the second highest (combined) traffic next only to Hong Kong Airport in China. Transrapid (a German maglev company, which has a test track in Emsland, Germany), constructed the first commercial maglev railway in the world, from Shanghai's Longyang Road subway station to Pudong International Airport.
The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The museum has a collection of over 120,000 pieces, including bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, furniture, jades, numismatics, paintings, seals, sculptures, minority art and foreign art. It has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls.
The Bund is a district in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. Some of the most important landmark buildings in The Bund are the Peace Hotel, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building, and the Customs House. The Peace Hotel (formerly Cathay Hotel), with the attached Sassoon Building (which housed offices), was built by Sir Victor Sassoon. It was, and still is today, famous for its jazz band in its cafe. The top floor originally housed Sassoon's private apartment. The HSBC Building, now used by the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was once the headquarters of HSBC.
The Longhua Temple is a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha in Shanghai Municipality, China. Although most of the present-day buildings date from later reconstructions, the temple preserves the architectural design of a Song Dynasty monastery of the Buddhist Chan sect. It is the largest, most authentic and complete ancient temple complex in the city of Shanghai.
The Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai, China were the emperor's private gardens during the Ming Dynasty. They date to the 16th century and feature classic Chinese architecture and design. Today they are a popular tourist attraction for domestic and international visitors alike to Shanghai. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair. They were opened to the public in 1961 and declared a national monument by the State Department in 1982.