With magnificent buildings from colonial times on the one side and imposing skyscrapers on the other side of the Huangpu, this modern ‘storefront’ of China invites visitors to linger in awe. With more than 19 million inhabitants, Shanghai is the largest and most important industrial city of the People’s Republic of China.
PARIS OF ASIA
Whether fine arts or architecture, music or fashion – nowhere else in China is as lively and modern as in Shanghai. Once called the ‘Paris of Asia’, the city is celebrating its comeback as a globally-welcoming, open and culturally sophisticated metropolis. Shanghai has the largest harbour in the world where, in 2004 for instance, it handled 380 million tons of goods and merchandise. The city is also an important traffic junction and a significant cultural and education centre with numerous universities, colleges, research institutes, theatres, and museums. In the last few years, skyscrapers have been growing like mushrooms in Shanghai. Most of them have been built in Pudong, also site of the ‘Jinmao Tower,’ with its height of 420.6 metres and 88 floors. The tallest building in Shanghai now is the TV tower, also in Pudong (’Pearl of the Orient Towers’) at a height of 467.9 metres. The ‘Shanghai World Financial Centre,’ reaching 492 metres, has now surpassed them all. This fabulous building with 101 floors was finished in 2008.
