In a massive, multi-faceted city like Shanghai, you can only expect to scratch the surface on a short visit. The more you know about a new city before you visit, the more enriching your experience is likely to be, so here are a few things you didn’t know about Shanghai to get you primed for your time in China.
1. The name Shanghai means “on the sea,” which is appropriate given the city’s location at the mouth of the Huangpu River.
2. More people live in this one city than in the entire country of New Zealand. Shanghai’s population — more than 23 million people — is over five times as large.
3. Natives to Shanghai have their own dialect called Shanghainese, and people from other parts of China can’t understand it.
4. Shanghai has a sizable Jewish community after thousands fled Europe to Shanghai during World War II. To explore the city’s unusual heritage, take a walking tour of Shanghai’s Jewish district.
5. Each weekend, hundreds of Shanghai parents come to the People’s Square marriage market to look for suitable mates for their children.
6. Unlike Peking opera, Shanghai opera usually casts women in both male and female roles.
7. KFC is ridiculously popular in Shanghai (and all of China). The franchise fried up its first batch of chicken in Shanghai in 1989, five years before the arrival of the first McDonald’s.
8. Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport was designed by French architect Paul Andreu to resemble a seagull in flight. It’s also a stop on the world’s fastest train, the Maglev.
9. Shanghai is the largest city in the world when measured by population within the city limits.
10. Only half of one percent of Shanghai’s population are not Han Chinese, including foreign expats.
11. Shanghai receives fewer average hours of sunlight per year and has a greater average annual rainfall than Portland, Oregon, so pack your umbrella.
12. English author J.G. Ballard was born in Shanghai and penned Empire of the Sun after spending two years in an internment camp as a child during World War II.
13. You can get pretty much anything delivered in Shanghai, not just pizza. McDonald’s and KFC both deliver, grocery stores deliver, and even corner stores will deliver a soda and chips to your door.
14. People in Shanghai (and other parts of China) see nothing wrong with wearing pajamas out in the streets. This practice was discouraged by the Communist Party’s Neighborhood Committee in the lead up to the Shanghai Expo.
15. You can go skiing in Shanghai at Yinqixing Indoor Skiing Site, one of the largest indoor skiing facilities on the planet.
16. You won’t need to know much Chinese in Shanghai (though you should anyway) because it’s compulsory for the city’s schools to start teaching English in the first grade.
17. Grocery and convenience stores will charge you for plastic bags, so either bring your own or be prepared to pay.
18. Locals in Shanghai tend to drink everything warm or at room temperature, including water and beer. If you want either served cold, you’ll need to ask for it that way.
19. Local Shanghai cuisine is considered one of the sweetest in all of China. If you like American Chinese food, you’ll probably like the stuff in Shanghai as well. Learn more about the local food culture on a food tour of Shanghai.
20. The official Shanghai flower is the white Magnolia.
SEE ALSO: A Local's Guide To Shanghai