Projected Population in 2015: 17.2 million
Population in 2005: 14.5 million

Shanghai was diverted from obscurity in 1842, when China lost the First Opium War and was forced to open several ports to foreign exploitation. Thanks to its location near the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai prospered mightily and grew into China's largest and most cosmopolitan city: "The Paris of the East." The foreigners fled in 1949 when the Communists took over, but in recent years, Shanghai has reclaimed its former stature as a financial and industrial behemoth.