Shanghai--China's Modern Jewel

China and Shanghai will host the World Expo in exactly one year. Go if you can--this is an amazingly beautiful and rich city. It embodies so many of the struggles, travails, successes, and potential that China has to offer in the 21st century.

Shanghai is China's largest city--with more than 19 million residents. 15 new buildings are erected in Shanghai every month. It's skyline reads like a major Financial newspaper cover--with the world's biggest brands in banking, hotels, and shopping filling the sky. It's location on a major Chinese waterway and coastline have made it a trading port of the world for centuries. And, of course, you can get a great cup of tea in Shanghai.

(Photo above: Fresh, steaming hot pork and sticky rice rolled in lotus leaves at Watertown.) 

(Photo above: Old style brooms at a private garden in a residential neighborhood.) 

(Photo above: Shanghai's growing skyline seen from the rooftop of a famous tea house near the Bund.) 

(Photo above: 15 new buildings go up in Shanghai each month--here is a handful of this month's offering.) 

(Photo above: Shanghai's future is now.)