Geographical Advantages
Shanghai covers a total area of 6,340 square kilometers and is centrally located along China's prosperous eastern coastline at the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces to the west, the East China Sea to the east and Hangzhou Bay to the south. North of the city, the Yangtze River pours into the East China Sea and thanks to this strategic geographic location, Shanghai has today become the country's premier sea and river port, boasting easy access to the country's vast interior. 
Environmental Protection
Shanghai's environmental quality is far ahead of most of China's major cities and enjoys a Class I rating. Over 3% of the city's GDP goes towards environmental protection. Air quality readings are made available from the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) on a daily basis and may be viewed online at:
http://www.envir.online.sh.cn/eng/airep/aireport.htm
By the end of 2006, Shanghai's green-space coverage reached 37.3%, while green-space per capita reached 11.5 square meters. There are 125 parks open to the public in Shanghai, elevating the city's forest coverage rate to 11.6% of total city land.
Urban Greening in Shanghai (2000 and 2005)
Banking and Insurance
Shanghai is home to the mainland's most robust financial and capital markets with a complete market system in place for financial transactions and trading involving local and foreign currencies, investment capital, futures, gold and property. In 2005, the total volume of financial market transactions amounted to 35 trillion RMB, of which inter-bank market transactions accounted for 23.2 trillion RMB. The success and strength of Shanghai's financial markets have led to the following developments:
1. The overnight lending rate and bond transaction rates are now fundamentally market-based and the city's financial markets have became important platform tools for financial and macro-adjustment control and implementation of the nation's monetary policy.
2. Foreign exchange market transactions have gradually expanded in scale and have become the basis for establishing the RMB currency exchange rate.
3. The volume of the city's security market transactions in 2005 was 5 trillion RMB, accounting for 79% of the country's total and solidifying Shanghai's securities market as the country's main board.
4. The volume of futures transactions in 2005 reached 6.5 trillion RMB, accounting for 49% of the nation's total and becoming the globe's number one transaction center for copper and rubber.
5. The volume of trade in the gold market reached 116.84 billion RMB.
6. Recently, it was decided that a financial futures exchange would be located in Shanghai to further perfect and complement the current financial market systems already in place.
7. By the end of 2006, there were 563 financial institutions in Shanghai. Among them, there were 109 banks, 281 insurance companies and 90 securities institutions, including 105 foreign-funded financial institutions, 43 of which are permitted to engage in RMB-based business.
Urban Improvement Projects
The site of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 covers an area of 5.28 square kilometers in the waterfront area on both sides of the Huangpu River, mostly between Nanpu Bridge and Lupu Bridge. The site is close to Shanghai's downtown and is easily accessible by various means of transport. Existing downtown facilities can readily serve visitors to the Expo. The older industries, such as the shipyards and steel plants now on the site, will be moved to the urban periphery, while after the Expo, the site will be used mainly by the tertiary sector. This fits perfectly into the city's industrial restructuring strategy. The use of the site after the Expo is completed is a key component of the Huangpu Riverside Regeneration Program and will thus receive sufficient political and financial support.
Public Health
With regard to medical services in Shanghai, there are about 4,600 medical centers of various types, with more than 70 thousand available beds for patients, including over 460 comprehensive hospitals, 26 CDCs (Centers for Disease Control), as well as 10 women and children's health centers. There are more than 100 thousand medical professionals in the city, including about 50 thousand doctors. Shanghai also has an extensive health care service network among its many districts and communities. So far, among the 18 foreign-invested hospitals and over 60 foreign-invested clinics operating on the mainland and approved by the central government, 25 are located in Shanghai.
Government Efficiency
According to the World Bank's Report on the Investment Environment among 120 Chinese Cities, Shanghai government efficiency ranked 26th in the country. However, the Report on Chinese Cities Comprehensive Competitiveness issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2007, ranked the management competitiveness of the Shanghai Municipal Government at 2nd in the nation.
Shanghai was the first city in China to establish an investment promotion organization; the Shanghai Foreign Investment Development Board, whose goal is to provide foreign investors with comprehensive services, including online services. Investors can make enquiries, file for consultations and lodge complaints by logging onto the website (http://www.shanghai.gov.cn) operated by the Shanghai Municipal Government. Furthermore, Shanghai has made progress on improving the examination and approval system and the time to examine and approve foreign-invested projects in Shanghai has been cut from 5 weeks down to 3 weeks.
The ''Great Clearance''Program:As the import and export volume of Shanghai Port has increased substantially over the past decade, efficiency of the port has become a key factor in appraising the trade and investment environment. In June 2000, the Shanghai government implemented a new plan dubbed the''Great Clearance''Program, to speed up port clearance, transfer and delivery. Through the success of the''Great Clearanc'' Program, the time of Customs Clearance for sea transport has been reduced from 120 hours to 24 hours and for air transport, from 72 hours down to 12 hours. The Songjiang Export Processing Zone enjoys the shortest clearance time, only 4 hours for air transport.
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