In what direction would you travel from the port of shanghai to the capital of china

North

Explanation:

Of course, if we could look at a map, it would be easy to figure it out.

Let's suppose we don't have access to a map but we have the GPS location information for both cities.

Shanghai is located roughly at 36° latitude North, 114° longitude West.

The capital of China is Peking  (Beijing), it's located roughly at: 40° Latitude North and 116° Longitude West.

So, we first notice that Peking is North of Shanghai (40° vs 36°).

We also see that the capital is a bit more to the West than Shanghai (116° vers 114°).

So, you'll be going North... a bit towards West.

On most compass roses, that would count as simply North. since the deviation from the exact North is minimal.