The Rise Of Shanghai

"Stand on the concrete promenade of the Bund , a once-chaotic river wharf at the very center of this city, and spin: The horizon towers for 360 degrees. Neon streaks in blue, red, orange, and green. Silver apartment buildings merge at the edge of sight. Turn after turn, the fantasy of the Oriental Pearl Tower and the certainty of the 88-story Jinmao Tower punctuate new Pudong, a district sprung from swamp and farmland.

If the goal were simply reinventing the physical face of a place, then the game in Shanghai has been won: In the blur of a dozen years, hundreds of acres of low, lane-linked neighborhoods have surrendered to skyscrapers. So many people in this city of 18 million have scrambled from their torn-down homes and traditions into dizzying new terrain of 2,000 towers and more. Individual lives react again as Shanghai leads China's charge from closed communism toward free-market modernity, stopping who knows where. Politicians and planners cite statistics and strategies to debate whether Shanghai, and China behind it, will conquer or crash."