Shanghai

One of the largest urban areas in the world, Shanghai is located on China’s central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The city also happens to be one of the most populous and the most developed cities of the People’s Republic of China. Shanghai will be hosting few of the Olympic sporting events in the city. The city will be hosting football preliminary matches at the Shanghai stadium. The major commercial and industrial centre of China has a population of over 13.5 million ranking first in terms of population density in the country.

Shanghai gained importance in the 1920s and 1930s when it turned into one of the most important international trade centers in the region. The city in those days was famed as the Oriental Paris, attracting hordes of entrepreneurs and scholars. Today hundreds and thousands of tourists from across the globe visit Shanghai to see for themselves its great economic impulse, various cultural and heritage sites and a blend of the East and the West. It within a span of ten years has come to compete against top class cities of the world like New York and London.

The Shanghai stadium, where the Olympic football preliminaries will be held has a capacity of 80,000 spectators. Built in 1997, the stadium covers 190,000 square meters. The stadium will provide a training field for the titans to clash against each other in the Olympics football preliminaries. The city has also undergone sea change with the approaching of Beijing Olympics games. Specific wireless local area network (WLAN) has been set up to cover the Olympic village, main media center and headquarters hotel in Shanghai. The city has internationally always been in news for organizing and hosting some or the other event of international repute. Shanghai hosts world famous film festivals, cultural shows, fashion events, commercial conferences and sporting events. The city after organizing the Olympic football preliminaries, will gear up for organizing the world Expo in 2010. Shanghai is hence indeed a pulsating city to visit and what could be a better occasion then the Beijing Olympics 2008.