Fuzhou Road is different from other streets in Shanghai. Before 1949, there were different kinds of buildings crowded on the street, including administrative institutes, bookstores, tea houses, restaurants, hotels and brothels. After 1949, especially in the 1990s, Fuzhou Road was gradually rebuilt into a unique cultural street with all kinds of book and stationery stores, including China Science and Technology Books Corporation, Shanghai Cultural Commercial Building, Foreign Language Bookstore, Classical Bookstore, Long March Surveying Instruments Store, and Shanghai Artistic Goods Shop.

Hengshan Road was built in 1892 and was once called Avenue Petain, a famous road in the French Concession. Hengshan Road was given its name in October 1943. Today, it is known for hosting some of Shanghai's most booming nightlife. Besides, it is also a leisure street with music stores, publishing houses and art galleries.

High culture

Besides the well-known Shanghai Museum, the city has also built many medium- and small-sized regional, personal and industrial museums. By the end of 2010, the number of museums in Shanghai will reach 150.

The Shanghai Museum is dedicated to ancient Chinese art. It was founded and first opened to the public in 1952 in the former horse-racing club at 325 West Nanjing Road. It later moved into the former Zhonghui Building at 16 South Henan Road. The Museum possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art, including ancient bronzes, paintings and sculptures.

Shanghai's History Museum is located on Hongqiao Road. It was opened in May 1984 and formerly known as the Shanghai Historical Relic Exhibition Hall. Today, it holds more then 30,000 cultural relics including ancient local cultural relics and more than 18,000 modern pieces, reflecting changes throughout the history of the city.

The Shanghai Natural History Museum was built in 1956. The museum houses a collection of 240,000 samples, including over 62,000 animal specimens, 135,000 plant specimens, 700 Stone Age relics and 1,700 mineral samples. There are also extinct and rare species which cannot be found elsewhere outside China, such as a Yellow River mammoth, a giant salamander, a giant panda and a Yangtze River alligator.

Shanghai Statistics 2008 (year-on-year increase)

GDP (Gross Domestic Product):

1.37 trillion yuan ($200.56 billion), increasing 9.7 percent.

Added value of non-public sector economy:

626.667 billion yuan ($91.75 billion), accounting for 45.7 percent of GDP.

Number of new enterprises:

82,100 enterprises, increasing 5.4 percent; including 6,374 foreign-funded enterprises, 71,787 private enterprises.

Fiscal revenue:

238.234 billion yuan ($34.88 billion), increasing 13.3 percent.

Fiscal expenditure:

261.768 billion yuan ($38.33 billion), increasing 18.9 percent.

Amount of social fixed assets investment:

482.946 billion yuan ($70.71 billion), increasing 8.3 percent.

CPI (Consumer Price Index):

Increased 5.8 percent.

PPI (Producer Price Index):

Increased 1 percent.

Added value of Industries:

578.499 billion yuan ($84.70 billion), increasing 8.4 percent; Electronic information industry accounts for 25.2 percent of all industries; Petroleum and refined chemical industry, 11.7 percent; Complete-set equipment manufacturing industry, 11.5 percent; Automobile industry, 7.1 percent; High-end steel industry, 6.9 percent; Biomedical industry, 1.8 percent; Hi-tech industries, 24.8 percent; Other industries, 11 percent.

Total retail sales of social consumer goods:

453.714 billion yuan ($66.43 billion), increasing 17.9 percent.

Port traffic:

582 million tons, increasing 3.6 percent.

Foreign trade:

Total volume of foreign trade was $322.138 billion, increasing 13.8 percent; Total value of imports was $152.788 billion, increasing 9.9 percent, and total value of exports was $169.35 billion, increasing 17.7 percent.

Foreign funds used:

$10.084 billion, increasing 27.3 percent.

Added value of tourism:

95.85 billion yuan ($14.03 billion), increasing 7.1 percent.

Added value of financial industry:

144.26 billion yuan ($21.12 billion), increasing 15 percent.

Financial institutions:

By the end of 2008, there had been 689 financial institutions, among which 124 were banking institutions, 291 were insurance institutions, 94 were security institutions and 165 were foreign-funded financial institutions.

Per-capita yearly income:

26,675 yuan ($3,906), increasing 12.9 percent.

Number of employees:

9.45 million, increasing 359,200 over the end of 2007.

(Source: www.stats-sh.gov.cn.)

The author is a journalist working in Shanghai