A Tale of Two Cities: Beijing and Shanghai in Chinese History
Beijing and Shanghai, it is often said, represent the longer and shorter versions of Chinese history: Beijing if one wants to understand China in the past millennium, Shanghai if one wants to know China in the past century. No other cities have influenced Chinese traditional and modern history as profoundly as Beijing and Shanghai. It is appropriate, as this century and the millennium both draw to a close, to examine what roles the two cities have played in Chinese history, how they differ from one another, and what kinds of future lie ahead for them and for China in the 21st century.
