Although the area that now makes up Shanghai had been settled since the 7th century, it only really developed into importance during the time when the British and the rest of Europe started exploiting the tea and silk industries and exporting from China in the 19th century. Shanghai boasts a natural port that gave easy access to the mighty Yangtze River, and attracted colonists from all over the world when the Chinese opened up the city. The British arrived in 1842, and were followed by the French and then the Japanese, by which point the city was an international settlement, immune from Chinese Law. By the 1930s, Shanghai was the leading city in the Far East, with countries from all over the world doing business there, although it had also attracted a reputation for sleaze, with opium, gambling, and hookers on the menu in the back streets.
The party that was Shanghai ended with the beginning of Communist rule in 1949, although, since the early 1990s, big business has been coming back, and cranes have appeared to be the only fixture in the skyline, as the city redeveloped in order to attract it.
