Shanghai 400, L.A. 46

"...lending me a refreshing, if not exhausting, new perspective on both L.A. and New York was a visit over the winter holidays to the emerging new China, in particular Shanghai. The bustling city on the east coast of the booming Asian nation makes Manhattan feel like its neighboring borough of Queens, and Downtown L.A. like Santa Monica."

"While L.A. keeps holding talkfests calling for the revitalization of the Los Angeles River, Shanghai in just a dozen years has transformed what had been mostly rice paddies east of its Huanpu River downtown into a sparkling collection of residential and office developments, plazas and parks. Known as Pudong, it is now the site of the world's tallest hotel, Asia's largest shopping center and the city's new financial district, all lit up and open for business."