Shanghai city (regional capital), history - - Pictures
Shanghai began more than 1,000 years ago as a fishing village. It was officially designated a market town in 1074 and a market city in 1159. The main activities at the time were fishing, farming, craftworking, and commerce and shipping. By 1292 the region and market city had grown to the point where a separate county of Shanghai was designated, and the market city became the county seat. This permitted the city to assume the important duty of tax collection.
Shanghai continued to grow during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and near the beginning of the 15th century the county had an estimated 64,000 households. A new channel was cut north to the Yangtze in order to permit better drainage and to keep the outlet to the Yangtze and the East China Sea from filling with silt. This also provided a much more reliable and shorter channel for river traffic to the Yangtze.
