Shanghai history

Originally little more than marshland, Shanghai was officially upgraded from village status to market town in 1074, and became a city in 1297 after establishing itself as the major port in the area. But it wasn't until after the British opened their concession here in 1842 that modern Shanghai really came into being. The British presence in Shanghai was soon followed by the French and Americans, and by 1853 Shanghai had overtaken all other Chinese ports.

Built on the trade of opium, silk and tea, the city also lured the world’s great houses of finance, which erected grand palaces of plenty. Shanghai also became a byword for exploitation and vice; its countless opium dens, gambling joints and brothels managed by gangs were at the heart of Shanghai life.

The Kuomintang government cooperated with the foreign police and the Shanghai gangs, and with Chinese and foreign factory owners, to suppress labour unrest. Exploited in workhouse conditions, crippled by hunger and poverty, sold into slavery, excluded from the high life and the parks created by the foreigners, the poor of Shanghai had a voracious appetite for radical opinion. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed here in 1921 and, after numerous setbacks, ‘liberated’ the city in 1949.

The communists eradicated the slums, rehabilitated the city’s hundreds of thousands of opium addicts, and eliminated child and slave labour, but when the decadence went, so did the splendour, and Shanghai soon became a colourless factory town. Shanghai’s long malaise came to an abrupt end in 1990, with the announcement of plans to develop Pudong, on the eastern side of the Huangpu River. The city's now famous neon-lit skyline soon followed.