Backgrounder: Shanghai, Modern MetropolisThe 2001 APEC MRT Meeting opened Wednesday morning in this modern international metropolis in east China.Located in the core area of China's coastline, Shanghai, covering a total area of some 6,300 square kilometers with a population of over 13 million, has become one of China's most prosperous cities in terms of industrialization and commercial levels. Shanghai, a key economic center, transportation hub and foreign trade port of China, is one of the leaders of China's scientific and technological research and education advancement. With a population of only one percent and a land area of 0.06 percent of the nation's total, Shanghai, however, contributes one twelfth of the country's total industrial output value, one fifth of port cargo handling volume and imports and exports value, and one ninth of the national financial revenue. Shanghai is now making endeavors to build itself into an international center of economy, finance and trade so as to help effect, strategically, a take-off of economic development in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta and the areas along the river. Shanghai is also blazing new trails in building up a modern market system to link China with the rest of the world to facilitate free flow of capital, technology and human resources. More than 20,000 overseas-funded enterprises have started businesses in Shanghai so far, involving a total foreign investment of 50 billion U.S. dollars. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |