Beijing and Shanghai
The two largest cities in China,
which itself has the largest population of all countries in the world.
Now remember, I go by metropolitan area population on this channel so just calm down there, son.
Based on that, Shanghai is the largest, with almost 27 million people! That’s more than the
population of Australia, for crying out loud. By the way, you could fit 1,213 Shanghais in
Australia. As I said a bit earlier, Beijing is the second largest in China, with 20.4 million people.
Squirrel: I can’t believe you are disrespecting Chongqing like that.
Look squirrel, all of us geography geeks know Chongquing’s population is wildly inflated, ok?
Squirrel: Whatever, dude (storms off)
I’m sorry for that rude interruption. Anyway, both cities are in the top
10 worldwide, though, with Shanghai at number three and Beijing at number eight.
Both are bustling, modern, global cities and yes…two of the most influential cities in the
world. And of course, the two cities have heavily influenced the culture of the rest of China for
decades, although Beijing has dominated it for far longer. More on that later on.
They're about 1,066 km, or 662 miles apart.
Or about a two hour flight apart. Or about an 11 and a half hour road trip.
Both are direct-administered municipalities in China,
which means they have the same rank as provinces.
The biggest ethnic group in both is Han Chinese. The majority of residents in both cities are not
religious and apparently atheists. That said, even some who claim to be atheists
there practice some form of Chinese folk religion. The biggest minority religion in both is Buddhism.
Both are two of the safest big cities in the world, with relatively low crime rates.
Residents of both have access to universal heathcare.
Both have pretty bad air quality due to air pollution. That said, it used to be much,
much worse. Beijing, in particular, has made HUGE strides in cleaning up its air
Both have stock exchanges, although Beijing’s hasn’t been around that long.
Both have solid, affordable public transportation.
Their trolleybus systems are particularly impressive.
So how about differences between the two? Oh there be plenty for real.
We already mentioned population, but the first big difference is that Beijing is the
freaking CAPITAL of China…the world’s most populous national capital city,
as matter of fact. Oh yeah? Well Shanghai is the most populous city proper
in the world. It’s also the FINANCIAL capital of China, although Beijing is close behind.
Beijing is in North China. Shanghai is in East China. Being further north,
Beijing definitely gets colder. It has a continental climate, with cold,
dry winters and hot, humid summers. Shanghai has a temperate, humid subtropical climate
with much milder winters. Shanghai gets MUCH more precipitation. More than twice that of Beijing,
actually (S-45.9 in, 117 cm, B- 21.4 in, 54.3 cm) While both get four seasons, Beijing’s climate is
greatly affected by monsoons. Shanghai has to worry about typhoons, which we call hurricanes
here in North America. While Beijing rarely has to worry about typhoons, it does get remnants of
tropical storms and occasionally has to worry about flooding. It also regularly gets dust
storms during the dry season. Both cities are at a very low risk of getting an earthquake.
Beijing has been around longer. A lot longer. Like, more than 2,000 years longer. In fact,
it’s one of the oldest cities in the world. Alright then,
let’s get into some history, shall we? We shall.
While humans have lived in the area of modern-day Shanghai as long as 6,000 years ago,
humans have lived in the area of modern-day Beijing as long as 27,000 years ago!
Woahness! Little of Beijing’s early history is actually known, but we do know that part
of modern-day Beijing used to be the City of Ji, or Jicheng, the walled capital of the state of Ji,
which dates back to the 11the century BC. Today it remains the longest continuously
inhabited part of modern Beijing. During the Zhou dynasty, the City of Ji became the capital of the
ancient state of Yan. After the unification of China as an empire under the Qin dynasty and
later under the Han dynasty, it remained important as a provincial center. Because it was near the
northern edge of Imperial China, invading nomadic groups often attempted to control IT first. This
is why Imperial China built a series of several walls just north of the city and this would
continue for thousands of years. Today these are all collectively known as the Great Wall of China.
During the Han dynasty, future Beijing became a booming metropolis, believe it or not.
In the year 57, when future Shanghai was barely even a fishing village,
future Beijing had more than 280,000 people. During the Three Kingdoms period,
the Kingdom of Wei controlled future Beijing, and that’s when the area got an irrigation system
that dramatically improved farming. During the more chaotic, so-called Sixteen Kingdoms period,
future Beijing was controlled by several different leaders. Stability returned to future Beijing in
589 after the Sui dynasty reunited China once again. In 616, the City of Ji became Youzhou
(I think that’s how you pronounce it?). Anyway, during the Tang dynasty, it was a prosperous,
bustling place, but future Beijing, or Youzhou became even more important during the Liao
dynasty. Why was it more important during this time? Well the Liao dynasty, led by the nomadic
people from Northeast Asia called the Khitan, made future Beijing their empire’s southern
capital. It became known as Yanjing during the Jin dynasty. The Jin dynasty created the capital of
Zhongdu in modern-day Beijing, and at one point it had a population of more than 1.6 million people.
But then Genghis Khan and the Mongols invaded in 1213 and then again in 1214. Over the next year,
most of the city’s residents starved due to the Mongols taking control over the food supply,
and they were forced to surrender. Khan renamed Zhongdu Yanjing. Flash forward to 1261, and Kublai
Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, visited the ruins of Yanjing and decided to rebuild them and turn
the city into his new capital. In 1271, he created the Yuan dynasty and named his capital Dadu.
Finally, twenty years after that (1291) Shanghai finally officially became a city
after the Yuan dynasty united several villages. “Shanghai” literally translates to
“on top of the sea.” Meanwhile, the Yuan dynasty had built a bunch of cool lakes in Dadu,
or future Beijing. Under their leadership, it became impressively modern and cosmopolitan.
Jump ahead to 1368. After the collapse of the Yuan dynasty, the Ming
dynasty took over and renamed Dadu Beiping, which translates to “Northern Peace.” In 1403,
the Yongle Emperor renamed it once more to Beijing, which translates to “Northern Capital.”
Finally, no more name changes, ok? For the next 17 years, Yongle transformed Beijing into a beautiful
place with a big reconstruction program. In fact, some of Beijing’s most iconic surviving buildings,
like the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, were built under Yongle’s rule.
For the rest of the Ming dynasty, Beijing became one of the most dominant cities in
the world. Actually, it literally became the biggest city in the world. But chaos returned
during the 1600s after the Ming dynasty fell. Ultimately the Manchu people took over under the
Qing dynasty, but under their leadership Beijing and China
as a whole was multiethnic. At the height of the Qing dynasty, Beijing had around 3 million people.
AND it was only during this time that Shanghai finally began to become an economic hub itself,
exporting cotton, silk, and fertilizer all over the world and becoming a seaport
as more and more ships from around the world came to China. During the 1800s, it especially
became strategically important. During the First Opium War, British forces temporarily
controlled Shanghai. During the Second Opium War, British AND French forces took over Beijing.
Both cities had to deal with lots of foreign powers getting all up in their business for
the rest of the century. In the 1890s, Japan built the first factories in Shanghai, further fueling
its economic growth. By 1900, it had nearly a million people. Meanwhile, Beijing was the
center of the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, anti-Christian uprising in China.
After the 1911 Revolution ended the Qing dynasty and created the Republic of China,
Beijing remained the capital and quickly modernized,
while Shanghai soon entered a golden age, beginning to attract migrants from around
the world and becoming known as “The Paris of the East” and “The New York of the West.”
The resentment toward foreigners in both cities, however, never fully went away and
led to massive protests throughout the 1920s and 1930s, especially after Japan
took over parts of China. In fact, it controlled Beijing from 1937 until the end of World War Two,
consistently terrorizing the local population throughout the war. Only parts of Shanghai fell
to Japan, and the rest of it became a refugee hub, not only providing a safe place for Chinese
refugees but folks from all over the world. Notably, it was the only place other than Spain
that unconditionally accepted Jewish refugees during a time when they faced genocide in Europe.
Just a few years after World War Two ended, Beijing found itself at the center of the
Chinese Civil War between the Communist People’s Liberation Army and the Nationalists loyal to the
Republic of China. It had actually really started back in the 1920s, but was back for a sequel
I suppose. Anyway, Beijing and Shanghai were mostly turned over peacefully to Communist rule
and the newly formed People’s Republic of China, which still exists today.
In the 1950s, Shanghai surpassed Beijing in population for the first time. During the
disastrous Great Leap Forward, both cities were not immune to suffering from the devastating
Great Chinese Famine from 1959 to 1961. During the Cultural Revolution, when the dictator Mao Zedong
attempted to destroy remnants of capitalism and traditional elements of Chinese society,
Shanghai somehow managed to hold on to capitalism while Beijing
somehow managed to hold on to Chinese tradition. From the 1960s all the way to the present day,
both cities have been magnets for folks escaping poverty in rural areas. Shanghai was
more influential in helping capitalism return to China, and after Deng Xiaoping introduced sweeping
economic reforms in the 1980s, both cities have seen DRAMATIC economic growth ever since.
I mean, look at these before and after pictures. These changes have taken place all in my lifetime,
and it’s quite impressive. That said, it has led to inequality, and this led to protests
like the big ones seen in Beijing in 1989, which led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
As you probably already guessed by now, today Shanghai has a larger economy,
with a higher GDP overall. But Beijing has a higher GDP per capita.
It also has more billionaires. Well actually, it has more billionaires than any other city in
the world. Billionaires? What about all those hard workers trying to scrape by?
Well the minimum wage is higher in Shanghai. (S- 2,590 yuan, B- 2,320 yuan)
Still, Beijing has a lower cost of living.
Major industries in Beijing today include electronics, financial services,
machinery, and chemicals. Major industries in Shanghai today also include electronics
and financial services, but additionally retail and transportation. Major media
institutions are also located in both cities that heavily influence the rest of the country.
Shanghai is the world’s largest port city. Talk about location, location,
location. Right in the middle of China’s east coast, near the mouth of the legendary Yangtze
River where it empties into the East China Sea which of course leads to the Pacific
Ocean and sending lots of stuff to us over here in North America. And yes it has beaches, baby.
While Shanghai is on relatively flat land being on the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing
is near mountains, where the North China Plain meets the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges.
Shanghai has a higher population density. (S- 3,830 people per square km,
B- 1,334 people per square km) It’s also growing at a faster rate.
While both have really bad traffic, Beijing’s traffic is worse. But
while Shanghai is generally easier to get around in, Beijing is more bike friendly.
In Beijing, they mainly speak Mandarin Chinese, while in Shanghai most speak a
dialect of Wu Chinese called Shanghainese. Ok, Mandarin is commonly spoken there, too.
Approximately 39% of Shanghai residents are long-term migrants from
all over the world. Beijing also has a sizable group of ethnic minorities,
notably the Manchu and Mongol. There’s also a sizeable Chinese Muslim population there.
Possibly due to all the migrants in Shanghai, it has a bit more of a cosmopolitan feel to it. Oh,
and Shanghai also gets more international visitors each year.
Beijing has more ring roads. Well actually,
Beijing is kind of known for its ring roads, and has seven of them.
Shanghai has much younger residents, on average.
Beijing has more preserved historical sites to see. Beijing is famous for its siheyuans, also
known as courtyard houses, which are traditional Chinese homes that consist of four houses and a
courtyard in the middle. Shanghai, meanwhile, is known for ITS historic Shikumen houses,
which consist of two or three floors and a narrow front yard protected with high walls.
Based on my research, Beijing residents seem a bit more
individualistic and rebellious and the city has more subcultures.
Beijing has hosted the Olympics, Shanghai has not. In fact, Beijing is about to become
the first city in world history to host both the Summer AND Winter Olympic Games,
hosting the Summer Olympics back in 2008 and the Winter Olympics coming up in 2022. Ok ok
ok. Before I get comments, I know that Shanghai did host a few 2008 Summer Olympics events.
Shanghai’s skyline is a bit more dramatic. The city actually has the fifth most
skyscrapers of all cities in the world. It’s also home to some of the most amazing Art
Deco architecture in the world.
Beijing is known for its craft beer, while Shanghai is known for its cocktails.
Shanghai has the Shanghai marriage market, where apparently parents of unmarried adults flock to
every weekend to trade information about their children and try to hook them up with each
other. The more I think of this, actually, the more I think it kind of makes sense.
Beijing seems to just have more touristy stuff. Major attractions there include Tiananmen Square,
the aforementioned Temple of Heaven, the aforementioned Forbidden City, Summer Palace,
The Palace Museum, National Stadium, and the aforementioned Great Wall of China. Major
attractions in Shanghai include the Bund, Shanghai Tower, Jin Mao Tower, Yu Garden, and Nanjing Road.
Shanghai also has the futuristic looking Lujiazui financial district. In fact, it’s
so stereotypically futuristic looking that the producers of the film Her shot some scenes there.
Oh hey but the Drew Carey Show filmed in Beijing. That was such a great episode.
But if you want a glimpse of the past near Shanghai, there are some idyllic water towns
nearby. Water towns are ancient Chinese towns known for their bridges, rivers, and canals.
Beijing is known for its opera. Oh wow, I just realized this was the first time in
the history of my channel that I ever brought up opera. Perhaps it’s time to wrap this thing up.
In conclusion, if you ever get the chance to visit China, visiting these two cities is pretty much
a must. While Beijing has a reputation for being the place to visit to learn about Chinese history
and culture, and Shanghai has a reputation for being the place to visit to learn about
modern China, both are awesome examples of China’s future, and that future looks extremely bright.
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So for those of you who dig my Compared series i am now selling in my store a
mr beat compared series mug it looks just like this you can drink out of it
yeah check the link in the description so you can get one just like this but this was another
city rivalry i especially want to hear from you if you're from Beijing or Shanghai feel free to talk
trash in the comments below also let me know which city should i compare next thanks for watching
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