The Shanghai is part of notNeutral's City Plate Collection #1 themed around "City as Gateway" with Los Angeles, Shanghai, Cairo and Berlin chosen. With this theme they asked: how is each city dealing with the effects of agglomeration as its population begins to reach critical mass?

 

Shanghai, the largest commercial and financial power in China, is one of the largest ports in Asia. Its central location on China's Pacific coast has made the city a major gateway between China and the Western world. The city's urban center has a unique organic form, caused in part by the wide curve of the Huangpu River, which bisects the city and comes across as a dramatic swath of blue on the plate. The areas allotted to foreign powers after the Opium Wars - the British, French, and Americans - reflect the grid-form of traditional Western city planning.