Province View-china.org.cn

Mayor: Han Zheng

Government office address: 19 Gao'an Road, Shanghai

Tel: 021-6321 2810

Website: www.shanghai.gov.cn

Geographic location

Shanghai, situated at 31°14' north latitude and 121°29' east longitude, borders on Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the west. North of the city, the Yangtze River pours into the East China Sea. At the central point along China's coastal line, Shanghai has ready transportation facilities. It also has excellent sea and river ports and a vast hinterland.

Shanghai 2004 - The Year in Review

General Economy
Gross domestic product (GDP)	GDP for 2004 was 745.027 billion yuan, up 13.6% from the previous year.
GDP ratio (primary, secondary and tertiary industries)	The primary industry yielded a value added of 9.671 billion yuan, down 5% from the previous year; the secondary industry, 378.822 billion yuan, a growth of 14.9%; the tertiary industry, 356.534 billion yuan, a growth of 12.9%. The proportion of the secondary and tertiary industries in GDP was 50.8% and 47.9% respectively.
Revenue and expenditure	Municipal revenue was 359.173 billion yuan, an increase of 27% over the previous year. Municipal expenditure was 139.569 billion yuan, a growth of 26.6%.
Consumer price index (CPI)	CPI was up 2.2% from the previous year.
Investment in fixed assets	Fixed asset investment was valued at 308.466 billion yuan, up 25.8% from the previous year.
Major Industries
Agriculture	The total agricultural output value was 25.521 billion yuan, up 3.8% from the previous year.
Industry	The industrial added value totaled 349.289 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1%.
High-tech	The annual output value of high-tech industries was 394.778 billion yuan, up 39.9%.
Construction	Its added value was 29.533 billion yuan, up 0.8%.
Transportation	The annual volume of goods handled by various modes of transportation was 635.64 million tons, up 7.7%, while annual passenger flow reached 89.693 million, up 24.4%.
Postal services	The annual turnover of postal operations totaled 3.626 billion yuan, 14.5% up from the previous year.
Telecommunications	The annual turnover of telecom services was 84.161 billion yuan, up 34.7%.
Retail	The annual turnover from retail sales reached 245.461 billion yuan, an increase of 10.5% from the previous year.
Tourism	The added value of the tourism sector stood at 44.774 billion yuan, up 29.4%.
Continued Effects of Market Reform
Imports & exports	The annual value of imports and exports totaled US$160.026 billion, an increase of 42.4% from the previous year.
Economic and technological cooperation	In 2004 Shanghai approved 91 outbound investment projects involving US$328 million yuan. Overseas project and labor contracts signed during the year, totaling 1,076, were valued at US$2.01 billion, up 20.8%. Business turnover for the year totaled US$1.496 billion, an increase of 12.8% from the previous year.
Foreign investment	The foreign direct investment realized in monetary terms was US$6.541 billion, up 11.8%.
Urban Construction and Management
Road transport	By the end of 2004, 485 km of express highway had been open to traffic. A total of 249 bus routes were opened or readjusted during the year, raising the number of bus routes to 948 at the year-end. The length of light rail lines increased from 112 km to 125 km.
Public services	Investment in public utilities totaled 2.692 billion, down 27.1% from the previous year. At the end of 2004, 1.416 million households had access to liquefied natural gas, up 61.8% from the 2003 figure.
Social Undertakings
Science and technology	The annual expenditure on research and development reached 17.056 billion yuan.
Education	There were 59 institutions of higher learning at the year-end. The number of students enrolled in postgraduate schools and institutions of higher learning during the year stood at 25,300 and 130,600 respectively.
Culture	Shanghai had a total of 78 professional performing organizations, 35 cultural centers, 90 museums, 28 public libraries, and 45 archives.
Public health	There were a total of 2,577 medical and healthcare institutions equipped with 85,000 beds and staffed with some 101,700 medical professionals and technicians at the year-end.
Sports	The year saw the establishment of 34 community sports facilities and 32 community (township) body-building centers.
Welfare and aid	At the end of 2004, there were 439 homes for the old equipped with 40,100 beds. About 586,500 people were covered by the government's relief fund.
Poverty relief	About 31,800 students from poor families got loans for schooling. Such loans amounted to 254 million yuan.
Population, Employment, Social Security and Living Standards
Population	The year 2004 saw births of 80,900, or a birth rate of 6‰, and deaths of 96,500, or a mortality rate of 7.2‰. The natural growth rate of the population stood at -1.2‰. At the end of the year, the total population stood at 13.524 million.
Employment	The employed urban population stood at 5.89 million at the end of 2004, an increase of 68,700 from the year before. About 608,000 new jobs were created during the year.
Registered unemployment rate	The registered urban unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Social security	In 2004, insurance plans for endowments and unemployment covered a population of 7.203 million and 4.382 million respectively. The minimum monthly wage for an enterprise employee was raised from 570 yuan to 635 yuan.
Residents' income	The disposable income of urban residents was 16,683 yuan per capita, up 12.2% from 2003, while that of rural residents was 7,337 yuan, a growth of 10.2% from the previous year.
Geography and Natural Conditions
Elevation extremes	The average elevation is about 4 meters above sea level. Except for a few hills lying in the southwest corner, most parts of Shanghai are flat and belong to the alluvial plain of the Yangtze River Delta. According to the 2000 survey, Shanghai covers a total area of 6,340.5 sq km, about 0.06% of the national territory, including 6,219 sq km of land area and 122 sq km of water area. It extends 120 km from south to north and 100 km from east to west. Its Chongming Island, covering an area of 1,041 sq km, is the third largest island in China.
Climate	With a pleasant northern subtropical maritime monsoon climate, Shanghai enjoys four distinct seasons, with generous sunshine and abundant rainfall. Its spring and autumn are relatively short comparing with the summer and winter. The average annual temperature is about 17.6 °C. The city has a frost-free period of some 300 days, and receives an annual rainfall of some 1,300 mm. However, nearly 50 percent of the precipitation comes during the May-September flooding season, which is divided into three rainy periods, namely, the Spring Rains, the Plum Rains and the Autumn Rains.
Natural resources	Dotted with many rivers and lakes, Shanghai is known for its rich water resources, with the water area accounting for 11% of its total territory. Most of the rivers are tributaries of the Huangpu River. Originated from the Taihu Lake, the 113 km Huangpu River winds through the downtown area of the city. The river is about 300-770 meters wide with an average width standing at 360 meters. The ice-free river is the main waterway in the Shanghai area. The total water reserve in Shanghai stands at 2.7 billion cubic meters, 200 cubic meters per capita. Facing the East China Sea, Shanghai has abundant aquatic resources. There are a total of more than 700 types of aquatic products in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. In addition, Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River where sea water and fresh water converge. The wide river mouth is home to 108 species of fish including 20 economic fishes. Shanghai also boasts a number of natural lakes with abundant bottom living things such as conch, Corbicula leana (a fresh-water variety of bivalves) and clam.
Tourism resources	As a city of a long history, Shanghai has 13 historical sites under state protection, including characteristic gardens built during the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. A group of architectures built since the 1990s have added something new to the scenic attractions of the city. The Oriental Pearl TV tower, the No. 1 skyscraper in China and the People's Square well fit into the urban landscape and compete with the Western-style architectures built along the bunds.