The pace of urbanisation in China since 1978,
together with the implementation of the Economic Reform and Opening
Up Policy and rapid economic growth, has been fairly fast. Cities
- big, medium-sized and small - have all undergone a period of construction
and redevelopment.
Shanghai, one of the largest cities in China, sits midway down China's
coastline, where the country's longest river, the Yangtze, or Chang
Jiang, pours into the sea. The city, at the mouth of the Yangtze
River delta, has the East China Sea to its east, the Hangzhou Bay
to the south, while behind it is the vast span of China's interior
landmass. Shanghai's geographical location facilitates all forms
of transport, with first-rate sea and river ports combined with
the huge water transportation network, well-developed railways and
roads, and two large international airports, which no other Chinese
city has.
The total area of Shanghai at the end of 2001 was 6,340.5 km2, covering
18 districts, one county, 144 zhen, 3 xiang, 99 sub-districts, 3,407
residents committees, and 2,699 village committees. Shanghai occupies
0.06 per cent of the national area and houses 1.31 per cent of the
national population, producing 5.16 per cent of national income.
Its GDP per capita has reached US$4,510, which is 4.96 times the
national average.
This summary
has been extracted from:
UN-Habitat (2003) Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, The Challenge
of Slums, Earthscan, London; Part IV: 'Summary of City Case Studies',
pp195-228.