上海传奇

In modern times， Shanghai is like an infant nurtured by both Chinesetraditional culture and the process of urbanization. The adventures it hasexperienced eventually develop into impressive and memorable storieswhich are stunning with mixed feelings on the stage of modern China.Before Shanghai was forced to be opened， it was an ordinary coastalcounty in east China. Residents in Shanghai lived a self-sufficient life.They cultivated rice and wove cotton. As other cities on the Yangtze delta，the county had to pay a heavy tax placed by the imperial court. It enjoyeda small fame as a transshipment port for the sea trade between north andsouth China， but it had yet displayed the talents and advantages for doinglong-distance sea trade. After 1843， Shanghai was forced to be opened tothe world. In less than one hundred years， a fundamental reform happenedon this piece of tiny land. It suddenly changed identity as the first moderncity in China and a well known metropolitan city in the Far East area. Thecultural miracles created by Shanghai raised interests of the complete world.This book tells the legends on how kindling of western civilizations wasintroduced into the foreign settlements in Shanghai during Late Qing period.Based on abundant historical resources and visual tools， author of the bookrepeats the legends with an easy plain language. A familiar but exotic worldgradually manifests in front of the readers: foreign settlement， ShanghaiMunicipal Council， Shanghai Town Hall， the mixed court， title deed， modernstreet， gas， waterworks， electric light， telegraph， tram and trolleybus， train，public garden， racecourse， newspaper， library， cinema， western orchestraand band， and etc. These legends provide answers to the question howmodern Shanghai is established. They record the historical moments on thetransformation of Shanghai from a local county to a metropolitan city anddisplay the cultural enchantment during the city's development. As a symbolof modern culture， Shanghai not only represents the lower Yangtze region，the Yangtze River， east China and the whole nation， but also belongs to EastAsia， Asia， the Pacific and the world.