SHANGHAI — The Yangtze, China’s longest river, meets the East China Sea at Shanghai. The region around its mouth — the city of Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui — is the country’s largest regional economy.
Jiangsu alone produced more than 12.8 trillion yuan of output in 2023, more than many countries, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Shanghai and Anhui each produced about 4.7 trillion yuan; the city’s statistics bureau put Shanghai’s population at 24.9 million at the end of the year.
The port of Shanghai handled more than 49 million twenty-foot containers in 2023, its operator, Shanghai International Port Group, reported — more than any other port in the world, a position it has held since 2010.
The delta is where China’s factories, ports and consumers meet.
The North China Times graphics desk
- 1843Shanghai opens to foreign trade as a treaty port.
- 1990Pudong, across the river from the Bund, is made a special development zone.
- 2010Shanghai hosts the World Expo.
- 2019The central government publishes its plan to integrate the delta’s economy.
The integration plan aims to join the region’s transport, energy and markets so that its 41 cities work as one economy.
