The Huangpu River divides the Chinese city of Shanghai between the older settlement in the west and the newer financial center in the east.
Johannes Eisele Afp | Getty Images
The latest wave of restrictions by Covid in China has forced millions of people – about three times more than they live in New York – to stay at home and undergo mass virus tests in the Shanghai metropolis.
As Covid’s cases began to rise in late February, Shanghai tried to control the outbreak with targeted, neighborhood blockades. But the city, a center for global transport, manufacturing, finance and trade, decided in late March to implement a two-stage blockade, which will soon apply to all areas, generally forcing people not to leave their apartments.
Most people outside of China know that Shanghai is big, but few realize how big it is economically. The following figures show the scale of Shanghai as an economic center – and may hint at the cost of the blockade.
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.
Overall, Shanghai accounts for 7.3% of Chinese exports and 14.4% of imports in 2021, according to Citi.
Production and corporate center
According to Citi Shanghai is Chinese:
- The most important semiconductor manufacturing center, home of SMIC, Hua Hong and Universal Scientific Industrial.
- Home to many car manufacturers: SAIC Motor, joint companies of SAIC with Volkswagen and GM, Nio, Tesla and Ford.
- Head office or main operations center for multinational corporations in China: Apple, L’Oreal, Samsung Electronics, P&G, L’Oreal, LVMH, Nike, Panasonic, Philips, Johnson & Johnson and General Electric, among others.
- Base for ship manufacturers: Jiangnan, Zhonghua and Waigaoqiao shipbuilding.
Finance
Consumer center
In Shanghai, official data for 2021 show:
- The average disposable income of 78,027 yuan ($ 12,288) was more than twice the national average of 35,128 yuan ($ 5,531).
- The average consumer spending of 48,879 yuan – also twice the national average of 24,100 yuan.
The American wholesale chain Costco chose Shanghai for its first store in mainland China in 2019.
And since last year, Shanghai has been home to the most cafes in the country, with nearly 3 stores per 10,000 people, compared to a ratio of about 2 for Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing, according to Meituan.
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Shanghai is home to three of China’s top 20 universities, according to US News and World Report.
The number of foreigners living in Shanghai fell to 163,954 in 2020, down 21% from a decade earlier, according to official censuses. The southern province of Guangdong is now home to the largest number of foreigners in China, more than 400,000.
The total number of foreigners in the country has increased over these 10 years by about 40% to 1.4 million people – or about 0.1% of China’s population.
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