Why it looks like this

Old Jiading is a classic Yangtze delta county town with a rare feature: its moat forms an almost complete circle of water around the historic core, with canals crossing inside and a Song-era pagoda at the middle.

Modern Jiading was chosen as Shanghai's automobile quarter: China's first big joint-venture car plant started making Volkswagens at Anting in the 1980s, an 'International Automobile City' followed, and the Shanghai International Circuit hosted China's first Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2004.