Shanghai, sometimes called 'Paris of the Orient', is China's commercial and financial centre. Its modern, international and fashionable reputation entice travelers and visitors from all over the world, who come to delight in its shopping heavens and wide variety of entertainment or simply to experience the glitz of China's most cosmopolitan city.The central Huangpu River and the Bund are the best points to appreciate the thriving scene unfolding in the city.

Shanghai, which started life as a fishing village, was finally established as a county more than 700 years ago. A saying spreads that 'Two thousand years' history is witnessed in Xian, one thousand in Beijing while one hundred in Shanghai'. The city had been one of the liveliest stages and opening gateway to foreign countries in the eventful 20th century and has gradually prospered into an international metropolitan. In fact, Shanghai's boom over recent years has contributed greatly to the reform process and opening up of China.