The Republic of Shang calture is a tiny, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its irreverence towards religion and punitive income tax rates. The quiet, industrious population of 9 million Shang caltureans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 53.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The developing Shang calturean economy, worth 270 billion shang yuan a year, is led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Automobile Manufacturing, Retail, and Cheese Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 30,097 shang yuan, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Planes can be grounded for months simply because an inspector "didn't like the color", foreigners with shady pasts are fleeing the country, science centers and state of the art laboratories are ubiquitous, and a new "thought police" branch is being developed. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Shang calture's national animal is the red and yellow bird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Shang calture is ranked 136,444^th in the world and 122^nd in United Kingdom for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring 502.77 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.