A、It was very developed. B、It was densely populated. C、It was at a war with Great Britain. D、It was a small, unimportant city. B

Shanghai is the largest city in China. About eleven million people make their homes in Shanghai and its suburbs. This enormous city spreads out along the banks of the Huang Pu River, which flows into the mouth of the Yangtze River about fourteen miles north of here. Large oceangoing ships travel to Shanghai by way of the Yangze and the Huang Pu.
    Shanghai was a small, unimportant city until 1842 when China lost a war with Great Britain. The British realized that Shanghai was in an excellent location to serve as a seaport for the densely populated Yangtze River Plain. They forced the Chinese to allow English traders to settle on the wastelands outside the city wails. Later, French, American, and Japanese traders also came to Shanghai. The foreigners built whole new sections of Shanghai, including homes, stores, factories, and office buildings. Thousands of Chinese poured into Shanghai in search of jobs. Most of them settled in the old part of the city. As time passed, Shanghai became one of the busiest seaports in the world.