Shanghai

Shanghai is a major city and port in eastern China, situated on the Huangpu River near the mouth of the Chang (Yangtze) River. It is China's most populous city, with over 21 million residents.1

The Shanghai dialect is part of the Wu group of Chinese dialects, spoken by approximately 85 million people in Shanghai, Zhejiang province, and southeastern Jiangsu province. A key characteristic of the Shanghai dialect is its use of only two tones (high and low), which are automatically related to the initial consonant type. Unlike Modern Standard Chinese, Wu dialects typically use seven or eight tones to differentiate meanings, and they have retained initial voiced stops that have been lost in Mandarin.23