Before taking part in the exchange program I had only very limited contact with China and its people and I wanted to learn more about this country with its more than 1 billion inhabitants. But before traveling to Shanghai I spent time with a surgeon from Shanghai Jiao Tong University who also participated at the exchange program and who visited Karolinska University Hospital. By this I got "first-hand" information from a colleague from Shanghai.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the oldest and most renowned universities in China and belongs to the C9 league of Elite Universities (something like a US Ivy League). See more information on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Jiao_Tong_University; and
http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/shanghai-jiao-tong-university/undergrad).
Furthermore Shanghai Jiao Tong University has a leading role in China in the fields of medicine and e-learning. The university has developed several high quality e-learning courses which are accessible by Coursea (https://www.coursera.org/sjtu).
Shanghai has > 24 millions inhabitants and is the largest city in China and one of the largest city worldwide representing the main business and financial center in China.
A visum is required which takes approximately one week. The visum costs 1095 SEK, a photo can be taken at the visum office (150 SEK) http://www.mittensrike.se/om-kina/visum-till-kina/. The address of living in Shanghai (e.g. hotel) has to be noted to get a visum.
It is recommended to buy a tourist guide about Shanghai or China if you have not been in Shanghai/China before. By this you get information about Chinese culture & life.
I organized the whole trip for myself. The International Affairs Office of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University can be contacted to arrange teaching and lecturing. It is important to check when students have holiday because many students are leaving Shanghai and travel to their parents when there are no lectures.