Shanghai, sixth city of the World!
Shanghai, the Paris of the East!
Shanghai, the New York of the West!
Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan city in the world, the fishing villages on a mudflat which almost literally overnight became a great metropolis. (All About Shanghai: A Standard Guidebook, OUP, 1934-5)
Shanghai boasts one of the most readily recognizable waterfronts in the world, and yet the history of this port city is complex and often contested. While there’s a current nostalgia for ‘old Shanghai’, the treaty port system that allowed this port to flourish was a legacy of China’s turbulent relationship with the West in the 19th century.
Let’s look ‘beyond the Bund’ to explore Shanghai as a port city…