The Huangpu River divides the Chinese city of Shanghai between the old settlement to the west and the newer financial center to the east.
Johannes Eisele | Afp | beautiful pictures
China’s latest wave of Covid restrictions forced millions of people – nearly three times the number of people living in New York City – to stay at home and undergo mass virus testing in the capital, Shanghai.
When Covid cases began to spike in late February, Shanghai tried to control the outbreak with targeted, neighborhood checkpoints. However, the city, a global hub for transportation, manufacturing, finance and trade, decided at the end of March to implement a two-phase lockdown and will soon apply it to all counties, in general. is to force people not to leave their apartments.
Most people outside of China know that Shanghai is huge, but few realize how big it is economically. The following numbers show the size of Shanghai as an economic hub – and may hint at the costs of closure.
Size
GDP
Global Trade Center
Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, one of the two main rivers in China.
According to Bernstein:
- Shanghai is home to the busiest port in the world, followed by Singapore.
- Shanghai’s Pudong Airport is the third busiest cargo airport in the world, after Memphis, Tennessee and Hong Kong.
In total, Shanghai accounts for 7.3% of China’s exports and 14.4% of imports in 2021, according to Citi.
Production center and company
According to Citi, Shanghai belongs to China:
- The most important semiconductor manufacturing center, where SMIC, Hua Hong and Universal Scientific Industrial are located.
- Home to many car manufacturers: SAIC Motor, SAIC’s joint ventures with Volkswagen and GM, Nio, Tesla and Ford.
- Headquarters or main center for operations of multinational corporations in China: AppleL’Oreal, Samsung Electronics, P&G, L’Oreal, LVMH, NikePanasonic, Philips, Johnson & Johnson and General Electricamong others.
- Base for ship manufacturers: shipbuilding Jiangnan, Zhonghua and Waigaoqiao.
Finance
Consumer Center
In Shanghai, official figures for 2021 show:
- Average disposable income was 78,027 yuan ($12,288) – more than double the national average of 35,128 yuan ($5,531).
- Average consumer spending was 48,879 yuan – also double the national average of 24,100 yuan.
US Wholesale Chain Costco chose Shanghai for it First mainland China store in 2019.
And as of last year, Shanghai is home to most coffee shops in the country, with nearly 3 stores per 10,000 people, compared with about 2 in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing, according to Meituan.
Shanghai is home to three of the top 20 universities in China, according to US News and World Report.
The number of foreigners living in Shanghai drops to 163,954 in 2020, down 21% from a decade earlier, according to official censuses. Guangdong province, southern China is currently home to the most foreigners in China, with more than 400,000 people.
In those 10 years, the total number of foreigners increased by about 40% to 1.4 million people – or about 0.1% of China’s population.
