Transportation and Culture of Shanghai

Shanghai has an extensive public transportation system, largely based on buses, and a rapidly expanding metro system. For a city of Shanghai's size, road traffic is still fairly smooth and convenient but getting more congested as the number of cars increases rapidly.

Shanghai has the world's most extensive bus system with nearly one thousand bus lines.^[5] The Shanghai Metro (subway and elevated light rail) has five lines (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) at present. According to the development schedule of the municipal government, by the year 2010, another 8 lines will be built in Shanghai. Bus and metro fares run from ¥1 to ¥4 depending on distance (or between 12 to 50 US cents).

Taxis in Shanghai are plentiful and market competition has driven taxi fare down to affordable prices for the average resident (¥11 (¥14 after 11pm) or a little over one US dollar for 3 km). Before the 1990s, bicycling was the most ubiquitous form of transportation in Shanghai, but the city has since banned bicycles on many of the city's main roads to ease congestion. However, many streets have bicycle lanes and intersections are monitored by "Traffic Assistants" who help provide for safe crossing. Further, most motorists in China were raised riding bikes and so are fairly careful of them. Further, the city government has pledged to add 180 km of cycling lanes over the next few years. With rising disposable incomes, private car ownership in Shanghai has also been rapidly increasing in recent years. The number of cars is limited, however, by the number of available number plates available at public auction.

In cooperation with the Shanghai municipality and the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. (SMT), German Transrapid constructed the first commercial Maglev railway in the world in 2002, from Shanghai's Longyang Road subway station in Pudong to Pudong International Airport. Commercial operation started in 2003. The 30 km trip takes 7 minutes and 21 seconds and reaches a maximum speed of 431 km/h (267.8 miles per hour).

Two railways intersect in Shanghai: Jinghu Railway (Beijing-Shanghai) Railway passing through Nanjing, and Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway (沪杭线 Hu Hang Line). Shanghai has two main railway stations, Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station. A Maglev train route to Hangzhou (Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train) might begin construction in 2006 and is planned to be finished in 2008. A high-speed railroad to Beijing is also in the works.

More than six national expressways (prefixed with "G") from Beijing and from the region around Shanghai connect to the city. Shanghai itself has six toll-free elevated expressways (skyways) in the urban core and 18 municipal expressways (prefixed with "A"). There are ambitious plans to build expressways connecting Shanghai's Chongming Island with the urban core.

Within Shanghai itself, there are elevated roads, which appear expressway-like in road conditions (direction-separated lanes). Tunnels and bridges are used to link Puxi to Pudong.

Shanghai has two airports: Hongqiao International and Pudong International, the later of which has the third highest traffic in China, following Beijing Capital International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. Pudong International handles more international traffic than Beijing Capital however, with over 17.15 million international passengers handled in 2006 compared to the latter's 12.6 million passengers.^[6]

As of December 2005, Shanghai's port, including the newly opened Yangshan deep water port (洋山深水港), is the largest in the world. The Donghai Bridge with a total length 32.5 km, is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world^[7]. It links Shanghai on the mainland to the Yangshan islands.

Culture

Language

The vernacular language is Shanghainese, a dialect of Wu Chinese; while the official language is Standard Mandarin. The local dialect is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin, and is an inseparable part of the Shanghainese identity. The Shanghainese dialect today is a mixture of standard Wu Chinese as spoken in Suzhou, with the dialects of Ningbo and other nearby regions whose peoples have migrated to Shanghai in large numbers since the 20th Century.

Nearly all Shanghainese under the age of 40 can speak Mandarin fluently. Fluency in foreign languages is unevenly distributed. Most senior residents who received a university education before the revolution, and those who worked in foreign enterprises, can speak English. Those under the age of 26 have had contact with English since primary school, as English is taught as a mandatory course starting at Grade 1.

Art

Songjiang School and Huating School

Songjiang School (淞江派) is a small painting school during the Ming Dynasty. It is commonly considered as a further development of the Wu School, or Wumen School (吴门画派), in the then cultural center of the region, Suzhou. Huating School (华亭派) was another important art school during the middle to late Ming Dynasty. Its main achievements were in traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and poetry, and especially famous for its Renwen painting (人文画). Dong Qichang (董其昌) is one of the masters from this school.

Shanghai School

The Shanghai School (海上画派 Haishang Huapai or 海派 Haipai) is a very important Chinese school of traditional arts during the Qing Dynasty and the whole of the twentieth century. Under efforts of masters from this school, traditional Chinese art reached another climax and continued to the present in forms of the "Chinese painting" (中国画) or guohua (国画) for short. The Shanghai School challenged and broke the literati tradition of Chinese art, while also paying technical homage to the ancient masters and improving on existing traditional techniques. Members of this school were themselves educated literati who had come to question their very status and the purpose of art, and had anticipated the impending modernization of Chinese society. In an era of rapid social change, works from the Shanghai School were widely innovative and diverse, and often contained thoughtful yet subtle social commentary. The most well-known figures from this school are Ren Xiong (任熊), Ren Yi (任伯年), Zhao Zhiqian (赵之谦), Wu Changshuo (吴昌硕), Sha Menghai (沙孟海, calligraphist), Pan Tianshou (潘天寿), Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) and Wang Zhen (Wang Yiting) (王震).

In literature, the term was used in the 1930s by some May Fourth Movement intellectuals, notably Zhou Zuoren and Shen Congwen, as a derogatory label for the literature produced in Shanghai at the time. They argued that so-called Shanghai School literature was merely commercial and therefore did not advance social progress. This became known as the jingpai/haipai debate.

Modern China

Because of Shanghai's status as the cultural and economic center of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century, it is popularly seen as the birthplace of everything considered modern in China. It was in Shanghai, for example, that the first motor car was driven and the first train tracks and modern sewers were laid. It was also the intellectual battleground between socialist writers who concentrated on critical realism (pioneered by Lu Xun and Mao Dun) and the more "bourgeois", more romantically and aesthetically inclined writers (such as Shi Zhecun, Shao Xunmei, Ye Lingfeng, Eileen Chang).

Besides literature, Shanghai was also the birthplace of Chinese cinema & theater. China’s first short film, The Difficult Couple (Nanfu Nanqi, 1913), and the country’s first fictional feature film, Orphan Rescues Grandfather (Gu'er jiu zuji, 1923) were both produced in Shanghai. These two films were very influential, and established Shanghai as the center of Chinese film-making. Shanghai’s film industry went on to blossom during the early Thirties, generating Marilyn Monroe-like stars such as Zhou Xuan. Another film star, Jiang Qing, went on to become Madame Mao Zedong. The talent and passion of Shanghainese filmmakers following World War II and the Communist Revolution contributed enormously to the development of the Hong Kong film industry.

Much of Shanghainese popular culture ("Shanghainese Pops") were transferred to Hong Kong by the numerous Shanghainese emigrants and refugees after the Communist Revolution. The movie In the Mood for Love (Huayang nianhua) directed by Wong Kar-wai (a native Shanghainese himself) depicts one slice of the displaced Shanghainese community in Hong Kong and the nostalgia for that era, featuring 1940s music by Zhou Xuan.

Popular stereotypes

Shanghainese people have often been stereotyped by other Chinese (both urban and rural) as being consumerist, pretentious, tight and disdainful of provincials; and at the same time, however, they are admired for their meticulous attention to detail, faithfulness in contract, professionalism, and style.

It is a belief of many Chinese from other provinces of China that Shanghainese men can be very henpecked (nagged or controlled by their wives). Husbands in Shanghai often simultaneously play the roles of a bread-winner, father, cook, plumber, carpenter, etc. Interestingly, this view, though outmoded in the context of the modern age, is still one of the first things these people think of at the mention of Shanghai. Shanghainese people counter this stereotype with the view that other provinces, especially northern provinces are androcentric.

People of other provinces

Only very few residents are descended from original inhabitants of the old walled city. Nearly all registered Shanghainese residents are descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These are regions that generally speak the same family of dialects as Shanghainese - Wu Chinese. Much of pre-modern Shanghainese culture is an integration of cultural elements from these two regions. The Shanghainese dialect reflects this as well.

Despite this somewhat heterogeneous origin to the Shanghainese population, there has been a strong sense of Shanghainese identity, founded upon cultural and economical superiority up to the Revolution and to the present day. The Revolution was a humbling experience for Shanghai as a whole, as it was brought into line by the Communist regime, whose ideology favoured grass-root agriculture and industry, and opposed bourgeois excesses, which Shanghai stood for in the eyes of many. While most in China viewed the Shanghainese as bourgeois and arrogant, the Shanghainese reciprocally eyed the rest of the country as "provincials" (乡下人; xiangwonin in Shanghainese). After the nationwide chaos of the Cultural Revolution and towards the 1980s, perception of Shanghai was greatly improved among other Chinese.

Tensions have been refueled in the past decade by migrants from all over China who do not speak the local dialect and therefore use Mandarin as a lingua franca. Rising crime rates, littering, harassive panhandling, and an overloading of the basic infrastructure (mainly public transportation and public schools) associated with the rise of these migrant populations (over 3 million new migrants in 2003 alone) have been generating some ill will from the Shanghainese. The new migrants are easy to spot by the Shanghainese, and are often targets of both intentional and unintentional discrimination. Efforts have been made by the local Shanghai municipal government to provide adequate welfare for the migrant populations in Shanghai, while also being cautious not to further increase the burdens of the native-born population.

Shikumen

One uniquely Shanghainese cultural element is the shikumen (石库门) residences, which are two or three-story townhouses, with the front yard protected by a high brick wall. Each residence is connected and arranged in straight alleys, known as a lòngtang (弄堂), pronounced longdang in Shanghainese. The entrance to each alley is usually surmounted by a stylistic stone arch. The whole resembles terrace houses or townhouses commonly seen in Anglo-American countries, but distinguished by the tall, heavy brick wall in front of each house. The name "shikumen" literally means "stone storage door", referring to the strong gateway to each house.

The shikumen is a cultural blend of elements found in Western architecture with traditional Lower Yangtze (Jiangnan) Chinese architecture and social behavior. All traditional Chinese dwellings had a courtyard, and the shikumen was no exception. Yet, to compromise with its urban nature, it was much smaller and provided an "interior haven" to the commotions in the streets, allowing for raindrops to fall and vegetation to grow freely within a residence. The courtyard also allowed sunlight and adequate ventilation into the rooms.

This style of housing originally developed when local developers adapted terrace houses to Chinese conditions. The wall was added to protect against fighting and looting during the Taiping rebellion, and later burglars and vandals during the social upheavals of the early twentieth century. By World War II, more than 80% of the population in the city lived in these kinds of dwellings. Many of these were hastily built and were akin to slums, while others were of sturdier construction and featured all modern amenities such as the flush toilet.

During and after World War II, massive population increases in Shanghai led many shikumen houses to be heavily subdivided. For example, the spacious living room is often divided into three or four rooms, each lent out to a family. These cramped conditions continue to exist in many of the shikumen districts that have survived recent development.

The landlords who leased (subletted) the shikumen out to other families were called "erfangdong"(二房东), or "second landlord" as many of them acquired the shikumen buildings from its original owner ("dafangdong"大房东). These landlords families usually share the same shikumen building with the tenants.

Fashion

Other Shanghainese cultural artifacts include the cheongsam (Shanghainese: zansae), a modernization of the traditional Chinese/Manchurian qipao (Chinese: 旗袍; Shanghainese: jibô) garment which first appeared in the 1910s in Shanghai. The cheongsam dress was slender with high cut sides, and tight fitting. This contrasts sharply with the traditional qipao which was designed to conceal the figure and be worn regardless of age. The cheongsam went along well with the western overcoat and the scarf, and portrayed a unique East Asian modernity, epitomizing the Shanghainese population in general. As Western fashions changed, the basic cheongsam design changed, too, introducing high-necked sleeveless dresses, bell-like sleeves and, the black lace frothing at the hem of a ball gown. By the 1940s, cheongsams came in transparent black, beaded bodices, matching capes and even velvet. And later, checked fabrics became also quite common. The 1949 Communist Revolution ended the cheongsam and other fashions in Shanghai. However, the Shanghainese styles have seen a recent revival as stylish party dresses. The fashion industry has been rapidly revitalizing in the past decade, there is on average one fashion show per day in Shanghai today. Like Shanghai's architecture, local fashion designers strive to create a fusion of western and traditional designs, often with innovative if not controversial results.

Religion

Due to its cosmopolitan history, Shanghai has a rich blend of religious heritage as shown by the religious buildings and institutions still scattered around the city.

Taoism, the "native religion" of China, has a presence in Shanghai in the form of several temples. The largest temple administered by the Shanghai Taoist Association is the City God Temple, at the heart of the old city, which is dedicated to three historical figures who are seen as protectors of the city. Other traditional temples include the Wenmiao dedicated to Confucius, and a temple dedicated to Guan Yu.

Buddhism has had a presence in Shanghai since ancient times. The Longhua temple is the largest temple in Shanghai, and was founded in the Three Kingdoms period. Jing'an Temple, located in downtown Shanghai, was also first built during the Three Kingdoms period. Another important temple is the Jade Buddha Temple, which is named after a large statute of Buddha carved out of jade in the temple.

There has been a sizeable Muslim population in Shanghai for centuries. They are served by a number of mosques, such as the Xiaotaoyuan Mosque in the old city, and Songjiang Mosque in Songjiang District.

Shanghai is also an important centre of Christianity in China. Churches belonging to various denominations are still found throughout Shanghai and maintain significant congregations. Among Catholic churches, St Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui is the largest, while She Shan Cathedral is the only active pilgrimage site in China. Other notable churches include the Dongjiadu Cathedral.

There were once sizeable Jewish and Eastern Orthodox populations in Shanghai. Various synagogues, such as the Ohel Rachel Synagogue, and Orthodox-style church buildings attest to this part of Shanghai's history.

Architecture

Shanghai has a rich collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles. The Bund, located by the bank of the Huangpu River, contains a rich collection of early 20th century architecture, ranging in style from neo-classical HSBC Building to the art deco Sassoon House. A number of areas in the former foreign concessions are also well preserved.

Despite rampant redevelopment, the old city still retains some buildings of a traditional style, including Yuyuan Garden, a traditional garden in the Jiangnan style.

In recent years, a large number of architectually distinctive, even eccentric, skyscrapers have sprung up throughout Shanghai. Notable examples of contemporary architecture include the Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Grand Theatre in the People's Square precinct.

The tallest structure in China, the distinctive Oriental Pearl Tower, is located in Shanghai. Its lower sphere is now available for living quarters, starting at very high prices. The Jin Mao tower located nearby is mainland China's tallest skyscraper, and ranks fifth in the world.

Cultural sites

• Lu Xun Memorial
• Shikumen site of the First CPC Congress
• Residence of Sun Yat-sen
• Residence of Chiang Kai-shek
• Shanghai residence of Qing Dynasty Viceroy and General Li Hongzhang

Colleges and universities

Shanghai is home to many of China's top and oldest universities.

National

• Shanghai Jiao Tong University (上海交通大学) (founded in 1896)
• Fudan University (复旦大学) (founded in 1905)
• Tongji University (同济大学) (founded in 1907)
• East China Normal University (华东师范大学) (founded in 1951)
• China Academy of Art(中国美术学院)
• Shanghai Conservatory of Music (上海音乐学院)
• Shanghai Theater Academy (上海戏剧学院)
• Shanghai University (上海大学)
• Second Military Medical University (第二军医大学)
• East China University of Science and Technology (华东理工大学)
• East China University of Politics and Law (华东政法学院)
• Donghua University (东华大学)
• Shanghai International Studies University (上海外国语大学)
• Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (上海财经大学)

Public

• Shanghai University of Engineering Sciences (上海工程技术大学)
• Shanghai Normal University (上海师范大学) (founded in 1954)
• Shanghai Finance University (上海金融学院)
• Shanghai Maritime University (上海海事大学)
• Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (上海中医药大学)
• Shanghai University of Electric Power (上海电力学院)
• University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (上海理工大学)
• Shanghai Fisheries University (上海水产大学)
• Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (上海对外贸易学院)
• Shanghai Institute of Physical Education (上海体育学院)

Private

• Shanghai Institute of Technology (上海应用技术学院)
• Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce (上海立信会计学院)
• Shanda University (上海杉达学院)
• East-Sea University (上海东海学院)
• China Europe International Business School (中欧国际工商学院)
• Shanghai Second Polytechnic University (上海第二工业大学)

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

Media portrayals

Literature

• Han Bangqing (韓邦慶), The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (Simplified Chinese: 海上花列传; Traditional Chinese: 海上花列傳; Pinyin: Hǎishàng Huā Lièzhuàn), a novel following the lives of Shanghainese sing-song girls (courtesans who sing, dance and may provide sexual services) and the timeless decadence surrounding them. The novel was first published in 1892 during the last two decades of the Qing Dynasty, with the dialogue completely in vernacular Wu Chinese (Shanghainese). The highly popular novel set a precedent for modern Chinese literature and was later translated into Mandarin and English by Eileen Chang. In 2005, Eileen Chang's translation was revised by Eva Hung and published in English by Columbia University Press. The novel is also sometimes called Flowers of Shanghai after the 1998 film adaptation.

• Eileen Chang was a famous Shanghainese writer during World War II. Nearly all her works of bourgeois romanticism are set in Shanghai, and many have been made into arthouse films (see Eighteen Springs).

• Besides Eileen Chang, other Shanghainese "petit bourgeois" writers in the first half of twentieth century: Shi Zhecun, Liu Na'ou and Mu Shiying, Shao Xunmei and Ye Lingfeng.

• Mao Dun, a socialist writer and playwright, is famous for his Ziye, set in Shanghai.

• Ba Jin, one of the most renowned Chinese writers of the last century, lived and worked in Shanghai, and set some of his works in the city.

• Lu Xun, regarded as the leading leftist voice in pre-1949 Shanghai, lived and worked in Shanghai.

• One of the great Chinese novels of the twentieth century, Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged is partially set in Shanghai and has mostly Shanghainese characters.

• Noel Coward wrote his novel Private Lives while staying at Shanghai's Cathay Hotel.

• André Malraux, La Condition Humaine, 1933 (Man's Fate, 1934), a novel about the failed communist revolution that took place in Shanghai in 1927 and the existential choices the losers have to face. Malraux won the 1933 Prix Goncourt of literature for the novel.

• Tom Bradby's 2002 historical detective novel The Master of Rain is set in the Shanghai of 1926.

• Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel The Diamond Age is set in an ultra-capitalist Shanghai of the future.

• The first part of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel When We Were Orphans is set in Shanghai.

• Yokomitsu Riichi's novel "Shanghai" was set in 1920s Shanghai.

• Nien Cheng wrote about her experiences during the Cultural Revolution in Life and Death in Shanghai.

• Qiu Xiaolong's Chief Inspector Chen Cao detective novels such as Death of a Red Heroine and A Loyal Character Dancer mostly take place in Shanghai.

• Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui was a popular and controversial novel about young people's search for social and sexual identity, banned by the Chinese government in 2000.

Films

• Armageddon (1998) destroyed by an asteroid and tsunami
• Code 46 (2003), directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Tim Robbins
• Le Drame de Shanghaï (1938), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, filmed in France and in Saigon
• Eighteen Springs (Bansheng yuan, 1998), directed by Ann Hui On-wah
• Empire of the Sun (1987), directed by Steven Spielberg
• Everlasting Regret (2005), directed by Stanley Kwan
• Fearless (2006), directed by Ronny Yu, starring Jet Li
• Fist of Legend (Jingwu yingxiong, 1994), action movie starring Jet Li, a remake of Fist of Fury
• Flowers of Shanghai (Haishang hua, 1998), directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), in which Anguirus attacks the city and destroys the Oriental Pearl Tower
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), starring Harrison Ford, begins in fictional Club Obi-Wan in Shanghai
• Kung Fu Hustle (Gongfu, 2004), directed by Stephen Chow
• Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee and based on the novel by Eileen Chang
• Mission Impossible 3 (2006), starring Tom Cruise
• The Painted Veil (2006), starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts
• Perhaps Love (2005), directed by Peter Chan
• Purple Butterfly (Zi hudie, 2003), directed by Lou Ye, starring Zhang Ziyi
• A Romance in Shanghai (新上海假期) (1996), starring Fann Wong
• Shanghai Express (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich
• The Shanghai Gesture (1941), directed by Josef von Sternberg
• Shanghai Grand (1996), starring Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau and Ning Jing
• Shanghai Triad (Yao a yao yao dao waipo qiao, 1995), directed by Zhang Yimou
• Suzhou River (Suzhou he, 2000), directed by Lou Ye
• Temptress Moon (Feng yue, 1996), directed by Chen Kaige
• Ultraviolet (2006), starring Milla Jovovich
• The White Countess (2005), with Ralph Fiennes
• Shanghai Noon
• Shanghai Knights
• Shanghai Surprise (1986), starring Madonna and Sean Penn
• Fist of Fury (1972), starring Bruce Lee

Economy , Demographics Geography and Climate of Shanghai

Politics,Administration and Subdisions of Shanghai

Origin Name and History of Shanghai

General Introduction of Shanghai