Established in 1863, the Shanghai Municipal Council was the governing body which administered the combined British and American concessions in Shanghai, known as the International Settlement. Wholly foreign-controlled, the council was staffed by individuals of all nationalities, including Britons, Americans, New Zealanders, Australians, Danes and Japanese. Chinese members were not permitted to join the council until the 20th century.
Representing a wide spectrum of nations, the Shanghai Municipal Council along with the foreign residents of the International Settlement recreated the architecture and institutions of their homelands in Shanghai. The immense presence of the council and the settlement's foriegn residents can still be seen throughout present day Shanghai, most notably on the Bund.
Among the many members who served on the council, it's American chairman during the 1920's, Stirling Fessenden, is most well-known and remembered. In addition to serving as the settlement's main administrator during Shanghai's most turbulent era, he was also remembered for being more British than the council's British members. This was quite appropiate at the time as the Shanghai Municipal Council and the International Settlement were administered more along the lines of a British colony.
The Shanghai Municipal Council's 78 year reign in Shanghai effectively ended in 1941, when invading Japanese troops entered and occupied the city.
Shanghai once became the third largest financial centre in the world, ranking after New York City and London, and the largest commercial city in Far East in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Political power in Shanghai has traditionally been seen as a stepping stone to higher positions within the PRC central government.In the 1990s, there was what was often described as the politically right-of-center "Shanghai clique," which included the president of the PRC Jiang Zemin and the premier of the PRC Zhu Rongji.
Shanghai is administratively equal to a province and is divided into 19 county-level divisions: 18 districts and 1 county.
The name Shanghai literally means "on the sea" or "onto the sea." Administratively, Shanghai is one of 4 municipalities of the People's Republic of China, which have provincial-level status.
Shanghai was occupied by Japan in 1937 until its surrender in 1945.
Shanghai is the birthplace of everything considered modern in China; and was the cultural and economic center of East Asia for the first half of the twentieth century.
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