FACTBOX: Five facts about Shanghai, Obama's first China stop

Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:05pm EST

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is in the financial hub of Shanghai, on the first leg of his maiden trip to China since taking office earlier this year.

Here are five facts about Shanghai, China's cosmopolitan business capital:

* Starting off as a fishing village, Shanghai began to develop into the metropolis it is today in the 19th century, when the British established a concession there after the first Opium War in 1842. Other colonial powers followed soon after in setting up their own areas of administration in the city.

* By the 1920s and 1930s, Shanghai was known as the "Paris of the East" for its glamorous lifestyle and beautiful art deco buildings, but also as the "Whore of the Orient" for its racy bars, gangs, drugs and prostitutes. That came to an end for good with the Communist victory in the civil war in 1949.

* During the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976, thousands of Shanghai people were sent into the countryside to work, and the city's development ground to a halt. Fortunately, many of Shanghai's historic buildings, including the famous waterfront Bund, were left untouched.

* When China began landmark economic reforms in the late 1970s, Shanghai was one of the first places to benefit. The country's first stock exchange opened there in 1990, followed by the start of a massive redevelopment of the city focused on the former farmlands of Pudong, now site of the glitzy financial district and a busy and rapidly expanding international airport.

* Today, Shanghai is home to an estimated 18 million people, from migrant workers from poor rural parts of China, to U.S. bankers, European artists and a precocious new band of Chinese entrepreneurs. Next year, Shanghai plays host to the World Expo.

Source: Shanghai city government, Reuters.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Charles Dick)

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