It is one of the most alluring, fastest-growing, intense cities on the face of the earth right now. There are so
many cranes to be seen across the sky in Shanghai that it sometimes seems that the city is growing them for export. You
get a nice feel for the rapid changes taking place in the city from
this article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star
Tribune.
The writer experiences the unrelenting thrum of the city’s cosmopolitan character, but observes that some old habits
die hard. For example, after dodging the omni-present Volkswagen Santanas which serve as taxis in the city, he
passes through the shadow of the Oriental Pearl Tower, one of the tallest buldings in the city, and soon finds himself
at an outdoor mall where a rally is taking place featuring three hundred red-flag-waving Communists chanting slogans
and celebrating the joys of Maoism.