The “oriental Paris”, the “Pearl of the Orient” or even the “whore of the East” were names coined at the beginning of the past century to express the splendor and miseries of Shanghai, which at that time was one of the economic, and vice, capitals of the world. After the break imposed by the Maoism, the city has awaken again to recover its place as one of the cultural, artistic and economic epicenters of the XXI century. Foreigners have also returned to its urban landscape, fortunately without the former colonial connotations.
The name of the city means literally “above the sea” - shang (上 ): above / hai (æµ·): sea. Scholars reason that this comes from the great influence of the ocean in the development of the city, but there is also a th…
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