Just got back from Shanghai, China

Would recommend it to anyone to go. Its an awesome place. The pace of builidng is absolutely phenomenal. The main city is on one side of the river and has a large waterfront expanse called the Bund which is very Westernised (Shanghai was a European colony refered to as the Paris of the Orient), but the other side of the river is just mindblowing. It's called Pudong and used to be a marshland about 20 years ago. Now it is a sea of skyscrapers, including two of the top 5 tallest in the world to roof height. i had a cocktail in the worlds highest bar on the 87th floor of the Jinmao Tower.

Its mindblowing to see the abject poverty that sits aside the shiny new. I saw an old woman sat outside her tiny little home in the shadow of a skyscraper and glitzy bars. It must be incredible to hear her life story from Chairman Mao to global city. It will be intertesting to see how the pace of change continues as it is very dependent on globalisied investment which has stalled in the current economic crisis. Its all been achieved by marketising the communist economy and allowing foreign investors in to an introverted state.

So much of it is flawed and doesn't work but i would recommend anyone who gets the chance to go and see it for themselves.