From fishing village to super-city in 50 years, then forgotten by the world until its revival began in the early '90s, Shanghai’s history is one of boom and bust. Now it’s making a major comeback, and it’s an amazing spectacle. Buildings go up (and down) overnight, traffic seems to double every week and the whole city buzzes. Encapsulating this is Lujiazui. On the eastern bank of the Huangpu River, known as Pudong (the old city is on the west, Puxi), this is China’s Manhattan, a forest of skyscrapers, all built in the last ten years. Before that it was farmland. The 468m-high Oriental Pearl Tower (+86 21 5879 1888) and the 420m-high Jinmao Tower (+86 21 5047 5101) are the tallest of the lot and either is worth climbing.

Opposite Lujiazui is the Bund, Shanghai’s brick and marble monument to early-20th-century Western colonialism. Of all these former banks, trading houses and hotels, the Peace Hotel and the old HSBC building (now the Pudong Development Bank) are both worth a look inside.

There is an amazing array of architecture, both foreign and traditional Chinese, all over the city. The former French quarter centres on Huaihai Road. On the main road the old façades are mostly obscured by modern signage, but along Fuxing Road (two blocks south of Huaihai) the views are clearer. The old Chinese city focuses on Chenghuangmiao (the City god temple, 249 Fangbang Zhong Lu). This area itself is good for picking up cheap traditional Chinese style gifts but head east and south of here towards the river for some amazing scenes of unaltered, old Shanghai.

For a good description of how all these different parts of Shanghai came into being, check out the Shanghai History Museum (No 1 Shiji Dadao, +86 21 5879 1888 ext 80449) in the basement of the Oriental Pearl. As a counter to this, see what the city plans to look like in the future at the Shanghai Urban Planning Centre (100 Renmin Da Dao, at Xizang Lu, +86 21 6318 4477), while the nearby Shanghai Museum (201 Renmin Dadao, +86 21 6372 3500) houses probably the best collection of traditional Chinese art and artefacts in the world.

Local history

With no Terracotta Warriors or Ming Dynasty tombs, Shanghai is a young city – think Sydney or LA. Throughout its history, the city has been shaped more than anything by lucrative trade and relative calm (compared with the rest of China) as a result of business motivated Chinese-Western coalitions. The ‘20s roared loudly here and, after a 40-year communist hiatus, it looks very much like it’s boom time again.

Local politics

Despite authoritarian rule, Shanghai residents enjoy a fair amount of freedom in everyday life with fewer laws that you’d expect. Cars rarely abide by traffic rules; many people get paid in cash and don’t pay taxes; prostitution, although officially outlawed, happens in every pink-lit barber shop; cannabis is for sale in some restaurants around the city. Every so often the police worry that the city’s international reputation is getting tarnished and have a half-hearted crack down.

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Source: Expedia