For centuries, Shanghai was just a small fishing village, and it was not until the 13th century that it developed into a town. In 751 A.D., an administrative county was first built in today's Songjiang, called Huating County; and by the Song Dynasty (991 A.D.), there was the town of Qinglong, northeast of Qingpu on the south bank of the Songjiang River. In order to facilitate transportation, merchant ships chose today's Huangpu Bund as a docking pier, and a city gradually emerged on the west bank of the river to replace Qinglong Town as a new port and commercial center. During the Southern Song Dynasty (1260-1274 AD), Shanghai's status became increasingly important, and the area was bustling with merchant ships. In 1292 AD, the Yuan Dynasty set up an administrative county here, and by the Ming Dynasty it had become the country's center of textile and handicraft industries, and the first factory was built. The Qing government set up the Shanghai Customs in 1685, and a large international commercial port developed from then on. At the end of the Opium War, Britain forced the Qing government to sign the humiliating Treaty of Nanjing, the first unequal treaty in Chinese history. Under the terms of the treaty, Shanghai was opened as a trading port and the tunnel was further reduced to an international colony. The invasion of foreign capital monopolized the handicraft industry in Shanghai and the southeastern coast, but it also brought advanced science and technology and management experience, which boosted Shanghai's commerce, finance, textile, light industry and transportation. At the same time, the national industry and commerce began to mature. Shanghai not only became China's commercial and financial center, but also controlled the country's industrial lifeline.
The western part of Shanghai was landed 6,000 years ago. The city was not fully formed until about the first half of the 10th century.
223 BC. After the destruction of Chu by the Qin Dynasty, the county of Huiji was established, with its seat in Suzhou. Huiji County governed Mu County, Yujian County and Haiyan County. Miao County includes the present Jiading and Shanghai counties and most of Qingpu and Songjiang counties and part of the urban area. There is also a Miao Township named after Miao in present-day Jiading County. After the unification of the six kingdoms by Qin Shi Huang, a wide road was built from Xianyang to Jiangsu and Shanghai via Hubei and Hunan. According to history, the road was 50 paces wide and trees were planted every 3 feet. The road passed through the northwest of Songjiang, "through the ancient pond bridge in Qingpu, west to Wu Cheng". In 210 B.C., Emperor Qin Shi Huang led a group of ministers and military generals, including Prime Minister Li Si and his youngest son Hu Hai, on a tour to the south, and they passed through the western border of Songjiang and the southern border of Qingpu in the areas of Hengshan, Xiaokunshan, and Mao, where they saw the abundance of local products and the bustle of the crowd, and the people rowing their boats to trade on the water. This shows that Shanghai had not yet formed a city.
By the Jin Dynasty, the Shanghai area had become economically advanced, relying mainly on the benefits of fishing and salt. In the first year of Datong of Liang Dynasty (585), the former Haiyan County was divided and Qingpu County and Qianjing County were set up. During the Tang Dynasty, the southern border of Kunshan, the eastern border of Jiaxing, and the northern border of Haiyan were built into Huating County, with the county seat located in present-day Songjiang County, and in the fifth year of Tianbao (746), the town of Qinglong was set up on the south bank of the Wusong River, northeast of present-day Qingpu, and belonged directly to Huating County. Qinglong Town was originally a place where Sun Quan of Wu built and moored warships during the Three Kingdoms period. Qinglong Harbor is the starting point of the downstream of Wusong River, which was a new port for foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty, and the shipping vessels could not only reach the coastal and river towns, but also directly to Japan and Korea.
In the beginning of Song Dynasty, Huating County was changed to Xiuzhou of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Roads (the state rule is in present-day Jiaxing). At this time, the beach east of Huating County, has become an important salt field, "the people are vast, the sea is playing", business is increasingly developed. In the first year of Xuanhe (1119) of the Song Dynasty, with the re-dredging of the Songjiang waterway, Qinglong Town saw even more development. According to the Song poet Mei Yaochen in "Qinglong Magazine", Qinglong Town has 22 bridges, 36 squares, and "three pavilions, seven pagodas, thirteen temples, and 10,000 smoky houses", and was known as "Little Hangzhou". Although Qinglong Town is so prosperous, but back in the day as a sea port of Huating Shanghai, is still a desolate fishing village. Later, because of the Wusong River downstream of the silt, once prosperous Qinglong Town, gradually lost the status of the Yangtze River as a good harbor, and increasingly depressed.
Song Xining years (l068 l077), the center of trade shifted to the northeast of Huating, where settlements were formed, from fishing villages to the beginning of the scale of the town. In the third year of Xianchun of the Southern Song Dynasty (1267), the town was formally established here and a town general was assigned to guard it. It was called "Shanghai Town" because it was located on the west side of Shanghai Pu. Yuan Dynasty to Yuan 14 years (l277 years), in Shanghai Town, the establishment of the Hublot Division, and Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Qingyuan, Placebo, known as the country's seven major Hublot Division. The government office of the Hombu Hublot Department was located in the later Shanghai County Office, that is, today's Xiaodongmen Fangbang South Road, Guangqi Road.
The Yuan Dynasty to Yuan 28 (l291), the formal establishment of "Shanghai County", which is the beginning of the city of Shanghai. By the Ming Dynasty, Shanghai had become a famous city in the southeast of China, with many restaurants and shops in the area.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the administrative district of Shanghai was reformed and gradually formed the scale of today's Shanghai.
To the eve of the Opium War in 1840, Shanghai County was bounded by Chuansha in the east, Nanhui in the south, Qingpu in the west and Baoshan in the north. There are 63 streets and lanes in the county, stores, fresh collection of feathers, large and varied, known as "the river and the sea of the Tongjin, the capital of the Southeast.
After the defeat of the Opium War, on August 29, 1842, the Qing government instructed the surrender of Yarrow and Iribe with the British plenipotentiary Pu Dingcha signed the Treaty of Nanjing. The third paragraph of the "Treaty" stipulates: "From now on, the great emperor (Qing Daoguang Emperor) to allow the British people with their families to live in the Qing coast of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai and other five ports, trade and commerce without hindrance." Then, the British again to "sort out the aftermath of the matter" as a pretext, in l843 on October 8, signed the "Treaty of Humen" with the Qing government. "Paragraph 9 of the Treaty stipulated: "In the Treaty of Wannian (the Treaty of Nanjing), it was stated that the British were allowed to bring their dependents to live in the five ports of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai.... However, the Chinese magistrates and the British stewards had to work out with each other the places, houses and bases to be leased to the British in respect of the local conditions." On January 8 of the same year, Balfour, the first British Consul in Shanghai, arrived. According to the "Humen Treaty" to the Shanghai Daotai official Mujiu asked to set aside a piece of land for "residence", exclusively for the use of British expatriates. Mujiu thought that the separation of Chinese and foreigners could avoid "disputes" and acquiesced to Balfour's request. Accordingly, Balfour issued a circular on November 14, 1843, announcing the opening of Shanghai on January 17, 1843, which was the first time the city had been opened to the British.
In the more than one hundred years after Shanghai was forced to open, the imperialist powers invaded Shanghai one after another, and they competed to set up rent boundaries in Shanghai. The first British in 1845 in Shanghai to establish a lease followed by the United States, France, respectively, in l848 - 1849 in Shanghai to establish a lease; later the British, the United States lease known as the "public **** lease". For more than a century, Shanghai has become an "adventurer's paradise" for foreign invaders.
In the May Fourth Movement of 1919, workers, students and people from all walks of life in Shanghai held citywide strikes, classes and markets, demonstrating the anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist patriotism of the people of Shanghai In July 1921, the Chinese ****productivist party held its first national congress in Shanghai In January 1925, the Fengtian army entered Shanghai. Feng army into Shanghai, the then Beijing government changed Shanghai to Songhu city. March 29, 1927 Shanghai temporary special government was established. July 1, 1930 Shanghai special city renamed Shanghai city. May 28, 1949 Shanghai Municipal People's Government was established.