Present-day Shanghai is a city of dichotomies. New buildings are replacing old structures at a rapid rate, but preservation measures are in effect that protect and restore those of importance. The Old City is receiving a facelift, but its classical architecture is being preserved. Gleaming skyscrapers tower over Buddhist temples. The East has a Western flavor in Shanghai, but at the same time the creations of a strictly Chinese culture have not been erased. A walk through downtown turns up astounding traditional treasures: a teahouse that epitomizes all that was old China; a classical gardens as quaint and chaotic as any in China; active temples and ancient pagodas; and a museum of Chinese art and artifacts that is universally acclaimed as China's best. If the pace of new Shanghai rivals that of New York City and its nightlife and its cafes now echo the sophistication of Paris, if the architecture and avenues recall 19th-century Europe rather than old Cathay, this is still a Chinese city to the core.

Shanghai is divided by the Huangpu River into Puxi and Pudong. Puxi, on the west side of the river, is Shanghai as it has always been known. It is the Shanghai of history and legend. The famous waterfront street known as ‘the Bund’ runs along its eastern edge. The riverside boasts an esplanade that attracts locals and visitors who stroll leisurely along its length.

Further west, as Nanjing Road turns into Yanan Road and then Hongqiao Road, which leads to the Hongqiao Airport, one finds many residential areas designed for the expatriate population. This area is also home to international schools that cater to foreign children. Servicing the western side of the city, the Gubei New Area and Hongqiao Development Zone provide hotels, apartments, restaurants and shopping.

Across the mighty Huangpu River, which served as old Shanghai's eastern border, a truly new Shanghai is taking shape. Known as Pudong, this Shanghai East boasts its own modern attractions: the tallest hotel in the world, the fastest train in the world known as the Maglev, reaching speeds of 400km/hour from the airport to the inner city, China's largest stock exchange, and one of the highest observation decks in Asia, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Shanghai has been an active port city for several centuries. However, it became a city of international prominence only after the Treaty of Nanjing opened it as a port for international trade in 1843 at the close of the Opium War. Prior to this, Shanghai was a cluster of fishing villages and a marketing centre, situated as it was at the junction of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, only a short distance from the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Sections of Shanghai were set aside as settlements for British, French and American traders as stipulated in the treaty. These areas ultimately evolved into the French Concession and the International settlement, which was formed by the joining of what was originally the British Concession and the American Concession.

Now Shanghai is a city that a visitor can comfortably enjoy and explore for the first time since those romantic days of the 1930s, when old Shanghai was a notorious playground for foreign adventurers and a free-trade show for overseas taipans and exploiters.

Shanghai is the center of China's commerce and industry. It has energy and confidence, and it has new dreams. Its polluted rivers are being cleaned up. Greenways and new parks are emerging. Historic neighborhoods, both Chinese and colonial, are being spared the bulldozer and transformed into avenues of shops and cafes. New theaters and cultural centers are attracting top performers from China and abroad.

Shanghai still has a way to go to become the New York or the Paris of China. It is not yet as prosperous as Hong Kong nor as international. But the raw complexity of Shanghai is its charm. Only in Shanghai are so many worlds, East and West, past and present, this elevated and pinched together, shoulder to shoulder, like a Picasso mural. This is present-day China on a grand scale, where you can breathe in the exhilaration of a new century for Asia.