Located at the estuary of Yangtze River, Shanghai boasts vast hinterland and busy water transportation.Along with her mild weather and abundant products, Shanghai has a natural advantage of promotingcommerce and trade. Ever before it was opened as a treaty port in 1843, Shanghai had already become a hubfor costal trades. Since 1843, Shanghai turned into a harbor importing Western goods and culture; conflictand fusion between Chinese and Western cultures took place, leading to the fast development of Shanghai'smodern economy and culture, as well as the rapid rise of the city. Today, Shanghai has become so charmingthat the talents as well as technology from all over the world flocked to her, making her a modern metropoliswith great cultural and economic prosperity.

Shanghai Municipal Archives keeps millions of volumes of dossiers that have witnessed the history ofShanghai. This book extracts some of the most memorable stories from the ocean of files, so that the readerscan have a glimpse of how Shanghai has evolved across the centuries.

上海位于长江入海口，襟江带海，水运发达，腹地广阔，加之气候温和湿润，物产丰盛，利于以港兴商，以商兴市。开埠之前，上海作为滨海县城，是沿海贸易中转之地，航运业已然十分发达。1843年上海开埠之后，上海成为西方器物与文化的输入地，中西文化在此碰撞、交流、融合、发展，促进了上海近代经济的快速成长，近代思想文化的发展与近代城市的急速崛起。在历经西方近代文明与东方传统的冲突与融合之后，上海具有了极其独特、奇异的魅力，由此而形成极大的引力效应，吸纳、融汇了世界各地的人才、科技、文化，进而发展为文明发达的现代化国际大都市。上海市档案馆珍藏着数以百万卷计的记录着上海成长过程的珍贵档案，这些独特的档案见证了上海的发展史，也保留了这个城市的珍贵记忆。呈现在读者面前的这些馆藏档案，作为上海城市记忆的片断，可以从中窥见上海城市发展的足迹。