Photos: 100 years of Shanghai, 1890-1990

By James Griffiths, November 11, 2013

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QQ published this fantastic look at how Shanghai changed in the almost 125 years from 1890 – when the city was very much a treaty port, dominated by foreign powers – to 1990, when Jiang Zemin became president of the People's Republic of China and initiated the policies which led to the financial and cultural behemoth that is modern day Shanghai. 

A French officer and his wife stand at Shanghai Wusong Port in 1895

US ships patrol the Huangpu river

An early-20th century factory

The first foreign banks opened in Shanghai in 1847, by 1930 the Bund (pictured) was the centre of finance in the city

Street advertisements show the melding of eastern and western cultures, 1948

Residents of Shanghai flee the Japanese invasion of the city in 1937

Shanghai's Nanjing Road shopping street, pictured in 1975

Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, 1978

The Bund, 1979

As Reform and Opening took hold, Shenzhen began to challenge Shanghai as the nation's commercial centre

People rush to buy shares in 1993 after Shanghai liberalised its financial policies

Three men stand on the Bund in 1993 as the Pudong skyline begins to emerge behind them

Nanjing Road in 1980 (left) and 1990 (right)

Yangshan Port, 2007

Shanghai's Free Trade Zone opened to much excitement in 2013

(h/t: Steve George)

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