Although Shanghai’s explosion onto the China tours world scene is comparatively recent, the city has a trading history of nearly 1,000 years. Shanghai’s strategic location near the Grand Canal and the confluence of the Yangzi and the East China Sea made it a natural distribution point for the cotton, rice and silk grown in the region, which was first put to use during the Song dynasty (960-1279).
By the middle of the 19th century, Shanghai was a regional trading hub and, based on this, the British sought land and trading rights here after victory in the First Opium War (1840-42). They were ceded 140 acres of muddy riverbank north of the walled Chinese city, which became known as the Bund. Other nations soon wanted to get on the bandwagon, and the French established themselves Yangtze River cruises west of the Chinese town in 1847, while the Americans settled north of Suzhou Creek in 1863. The British and American parts of town became known as the International Settlement, while France’s sector was called the French Concession.
The international communities within both settlements lived completely apart from the Chinese, under their own laws, and they prospered from trading opium in return for the exotic Shanghai tours goods of the East that were exported to their home countries.
The Taiping Uprising (1850-64) threatened Shanghai’s fortunes and, in response, international forces helped to quell the revolt both in the city and throughout the country, which reaffirmed the military superiority of the colonials. With greater confidence came houses and offices in the home styles of the expat community, and Shanghai’s infrastructure was developed, giving the China educational tours city China’s first telephones (1881), electricity (1882) and running water (1884).
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