Shanghai, is the city in Jiangsu prov., East China, on the Huangpu River where it flows into the Yangtze estuary. It is an independent unit (2,400 sq mi/6,218 sq km) administered directly by the central government. One of the world's great seaports, Shanghai is China's largest city.

The only large port of central China not cut off from the interior by mountains, it is the natural seaward outlet of, and the gateway to, the Yangtze basin, one of China's richest regions. It handles much of the country's foreign shipping and a large coastal trade. Great sums are expended to keep open its continually silting harbor. A submarine base is in the harbor. A new deepwater port, Yangshan, located on islands 17 mi (27.5 km) Southeast of Shanghai in the South China Sea, opened in 2005; the port is connected to the mainland by the Dongbai Bridge. Although water transport is of prime importance, highways radiate outward, and there are rail connections with Nanjing and Hangzhou, with links through those cities to the North and South China networks. A new international airport opened in Pudong (East Shanghai) in 1999.

The city's commercial section, the former International Settlement, is modern and Western in appearance, with broad streets and boulevards lined with imposing buildings. The Bund (which runs along the waterfront), Nanjing Road, and Bubbling Well Road are the most noted thoroughfares. Typical Asian buildings are found only in the original Chinese town (no longer walled), known as Nanshi. The Oriental Pearl Television Tower (1,535 ft/468 m high), the 88-story Jin Mao building, and the butterfly-orchid-shaped Oriental Arts Center with its four performance halls are in Pudong.

Next to Beijing, Shanghai is the country's foremost educational center and houses Fudan Univ., Jiaotong Univ., Shanghai Univ. of Science and Technology, Tongji Univ., three medical colleges, and numerous technological and scientific institutes. Shanghai has an astronomical observatory and many research institutes and learned societies. People's Square, refurbished in the late 1990s, is the site of an opera house and a museum containing the country's finest collection of Chinese art (both 1996).