Shànghǎi

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Tai chi exercise, Shànghai

Introducing Shànghǎi

The most dynamic city in the world’s fastest- changing nation, Shanghai is an exhilarating, ever-morphing metropolis that isn’t just living China’s dream, but is setting the pace for the rest of the world.

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Once a playground for foreign adventurers and socialites, the one-time whore of the Orient is now where home-grown tycoons build soaring monuments to capitalism and the locals party all night. But despite a past as evocative as it is notorious, Shanghai has dispensed with the rear-view mirror, pushed the pedal to the floor and is roaring towards its imagined future so fast that keeping up is almost impossible. New developments spring up weekly, while the rapidly growing middle classes work seven days a week in the hope of graduating to the big-time.

Shanghai is much more Hong Kong than Běijīng; there are no dusty imperial palaces here. Instead, European-style cityscapes and tempting, tree-lined neighbourhoods rub shoulders with the sci-fi skyline of Pǔdōng. Shanghai was where China first met the West and it’s still a frontier town, obsessed with the latest fads, fashions and technology.

But tucked between the shopping malls and the eye-popping modern architecture is the old Shanghai, where temples nestle down alleys, along with street markets and classical Chinese gardens. Shanghai is a city of stunning contrasts, where visitors can go from sipping a cocktail in a designer bar overlooking the Bund, to eating dumplings at a street stall, or gazing at a 10th-century Buddhist monastery, in the space of a few hours. Summer is hot and humid, winter can get cold, but Shanghai never stops.

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Last updated: Oct 1, 2009

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Thorn Tree forum discussion

Recent posts

  1. Renilde avatar
    Pudong Airport Shanghai meeting point

    by Renilde 3 replies, last post 10 August 2010

    My partner and I will arrive at Pudong airport with different flights in terminal 2 at Pudong international airport in Shanghai. What…
  2. nerak1 avatar
    Shanghai airport internet

    by nerak1 4 replies, last post 06 May 2010

    Just wondering if there is some sort of internet cafe at the Pudong airport in Shanghai? Thanks in advance!
  3. Flora avatar
    The Olympics..

    by Flora 73 replies, last post 01 August 2008

    .. do you give a toss? Without googling, do you know when they start? Do you know any of your countries athletes?

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