This layer is a georeferenced image of a map of Shanghai that was published in July 1945. It shows the city with its administrative divisions before the complete integration and redrawing of districts after August 1945. The two foreign settlements no longer appear officially. They are called "special district". In fact, despite the formal take over by the Chinese municipality under Mayor Chen Gongbo, the two areas remained virtually autonomous until the end of the war.Virtual Shanghai is a research and resource platform on the history of Shanghai from the mid-nineteenth century to nowadays. It incorporates various sets of documents: essays, original documents, photographs, maps, quantitative data, etc. The objective of the project is to write a history of the city through the combined mobilization of these various types of documents. The implementation of this approach relies on the use of digital and GIS technologies. On the research side, the platform offers various ways to step into the history of the city and follow its course at different levels over time. On the resource side, apart from providing original textual and visual documents, it develops a powerful cartographic tool for spatial analysis and real-time mapping. The authors of the present project subscribe to the idea of sharing scholarship and research tools for the benefit of scholars, students, and citizens at large.