Top choice for expats and best city for business

Name: Shanghai

Population: 24,870,895 (2020) 

Area: 6,340 square kilometers

Location: Shanghai is located in the Yangtze River Delta. The municipality sits on the southern edge of the estuary of the Yangtze River in the middle portion of the East China coast. It borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, and is bounded to the east by the East China Sea.

Economy

In 2018, Shanghai's GDP came at around 3.27 trillion yuan, up 6.6 percent from a year earlier. The added value of tertiary industries contributed about 69.9 percent to the city's GDP, up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year. Industrial added value climbed 1.9 percent year-on-year to 869.5 billion yuan. Shanghai residents recorded the highest disposable income at 64,183 yuan, followed by Beijing at 62,361 yuan, and Zhejiang province at 45,840 yuan.

Total commodity sales in Shanghai increased 5.6 percent from a year earlier, reaching 11.9 trillion yuan in 2018. Cargo import and export went up 5.5 percent year-on-year to 3.4 trillion yuan, among which the total import value increased 6.4 percent, and export 4.2 percent.

Output of strategic emerging industries registered at around 1.07 trillion yuan in Shanghai last year, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier. The biological sector reported the strongest annual growth rate, at 9.8 percent. 

The total outstanding deposits in renminbi and foreign currencies reached 12.11 trillion yuan, up 7.7 percent year-on-year. Disposable income per capital reached 64,183 yuan, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier.

Administration divisions

There are 16 districts under Shanghai's administration: Songjiang, Changning, Fengxian, Jingan, Jiading, Jinshan, Baoshan, Yangpu, Xuhui, Qingpu, Huangpu, Hongkou, Minhang, Putuo, Pudong New Area, and Chongming.