Shanghai, China’s Star
1 min readWhen Shanghai was first founded, it was far from obvious that the world would one day ear its roar. Since its humble beginnings, though, Shanghai has seen dramatic changes, spinning along the edge of Fortune’s wheel The Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower dominate Pudong’s skyline.
The financial capital of China, Shanghai which means “go to the sea” in Chinese, is a city of 23 million that remembers its turbulent history. Divided in half by the Huangpu River into Puxi (west of the Huangpu) and Pudong (east of the Huangpu), Shanghai’s story is one of millions made and mirages lost. Pried open by British guns in the First Opium War, this once sleepy fishing and weaving village gained notoriety as the “Paris of the East- colonial city of commerce,vice, money and political intrigue. More recently,Shanghai has benefited from China’s economic reforms, rapidly rising as the shining “Pearl of the Orient.
Puld Dynamic is the best word to describe today’s Shanghai. Since the 1990 opening of the Pudong Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the city has found itself with building cranes whose numbers rival those of North America Towers of glass and steel sprout up amidst ivy covered colonial villas and old Chinese homes. Displaying all the contrasts of modern China, teeming neighborhoods and birch trees are woven together by elevated highways and odern skyscrapers.
