Let me start with where Shanghai sits, because the position explains the city. It lies on the southern side of the Yangtze estuary1, with the East China Sea to the east, the Yangtze to the north, Hangzhou Bay to the south, and the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang inland. That gives it two things at once, an ocean port and a river route running two thousand kilometres into the country. Shanghai became a county in 1291, was opened as a treaty port in 1843, and grew from a cotton and fishing town into the largest city in China within a century.
先说上海在哪儿，因为位置解释了这座城市。它位于长江入海口南岸，东临东海，北界长江，南濒杭州湾，西边接江苏和浙江。这个位置一下给了它两样东西，一个出海口，一条深入内陆两千公里的水路。上海 1291 年设县，1843 年开埠，一百年间从一个种棉打鱼的小城长成了中国最大的城市。
In numbers, the city covers about six thousand three hundred square kilometres and has a resident population2 of around twenty-four million. It is divided into sixteen districts. Huangpu, Jing'an and Xuhui make up the old core west of the river; Pudong New Area, on the east bank, is on its own larger than many Chinese cities and holds the financial district, both airports and the Disney resort.
数字上，全市面积约六千三百平方公里，常住人口约两千四百万，下辖十六个区。黄浦、静安、徐汇构成江西岸的老城核心；浦东新区在东岸，单是它自己就比中国很多城市都大，金融区、两个机场和迪士尼度假区都在那里。
Officially Shanghai is being built as five centres at once: an international centre for economy, finance, trade, shipping and technological3 innovation. Those five words are worth remembering, because everything the city does is explained by reference to them. The port has been the busiest container port in the world for years running, and the Lujiazui skyline you saw on the way in is the financial half of that sentence made visible.
官方的定位是同时建设五个中心，国际经济、金融、贸易、航运和科技创新中心。这五个词值得记住，因为这座城市做的每件事都要拿它们来解释。港口的集装箱吞吐量连续多年世界第一，你们进城路上看到的陆家嘴天际线，就是这句话里金融那一半的样子。
Two symbols to finish with. The city flower is the white magnolia4, the yulan, which opens in early spring before its leaves come out, and it appears in the city emblem together with a traditional sailing junk and a ship's propeller, one for the past and one for the present. And Shanghai has a four-part city motto5: embrace all rivers, pursue excellence, be open and wise, be generous and modest. Whether you come for the Bund, for Yu Garden, for the water towns or simply to eat, that first phrase is the one you will feel. This city was built by people who came from somewhere else.
最后说两个象征。市花是白玉兰，早春先花后叶，它和一艘沙船、一支螺旋桨一起构成市标，一个代表过去，一个代表现在。上海还有十六个字的城市精神，海纳百川，追求卓越，开明睿智，大气谦和。不管你是为外滩、为豫园、为水乡古镇还是单纯为了吃而来，你最能感觉到的是头四个字。这座城市是外来的人建起来的。