Viewing Shanghai from an upper-floor hotel room in the Pudong Financial District, a visitor sees dozens of pirate ships moving along elliptical routes on the Huangpu River, decks crowded with tourists enjoying dinner, drinks and music. Fluorescent strips of neon colors pulsate along the sides of the boats and up the masts. On the streets, brilliantly glowing LCD screens show music videos, pop art and advertisements for Porsche, Chanel and Armani as a conga line of auto lights and frenzied crowds of sightseers swirl nonstop until midnight and later.

It takes some concentration to realize this is not a fantasized view of Asia, but a real Chinese metropolis of 23 million residents, one of the world’s most important financial and cultural capitals. And it is difficult to imagine how Shanghai Disneyland, which will open in 2015, can ever compete with the real animated city just outside its gates.

In a city that seems to reinvent itself every year, it is hard to describe the hundreds of new projects, recently completed or currently underway; many will be outdated by the time you finish reading this page, with higher and faster projects taking their place. However, the trend in Shanghai these days revolves around two words: money and art.

China’s State Council approved Shanghai’s first free trade zone, which will encompass four already established industrial and shipping zones within a 10-square-mile area of Pudong, a huge section of the city located on the south side of the Huangpu. Developers already owning property in the new free trade zone will benefit greatly as the city transforms the district into a commercially viable, Hong Kong-style economic zone.

The city will also get an economic boost, as the tariff-free environment will spur the growth of offshore trade and make Shanghai a shopper’s paradise. Although all the world’s major international brands have retail shops in Shanghai, they are mostly show windows for all but the upper-class Chinese. Many Shanghainese now travel to Hong Kong for bargains, but with new shops expected to open in the free trade zone offering Hong Kong prices, both local residents and visitors will be able to shop for high-end items in Shanghai without paying duty. With 500,000 to 800,000 visitors daily, it is easy to see the monetary benefit of the new free trade zone.

Traditional architecture in a Shanghai shopping area © Jackmalipan | Dreamstime.com

Other new city projects that will expand Shanghai’s economic muscle include the Green Valley Development, where a sustainable business district along the Huangpu will be constructed on part of the former 2010 World Expo site and will include office space, retail shops and restaurants. Many of the structures will incorporate hanging gardens, lush landscaping and open courtyards. “The project is designed so that, despite the monumental scale of the site, it relates to the human scale in its public spaces,” said Chris Hardie, associate partner and head of Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects’ Shanghai office. The project is expected to be completed in 2015.

Some of the biggest changes in Shanghai are taking place along the Bund, where, from 1843 when Shanghai first started trading with the West until the 1930s, Shanghai transformed itself from a small port on the East China Sea to a major industrial city heavily influenced by British and American business activity. This strip of beautiful 19th- and early-20th-century riverside buildings fell under hard times during Mao’s era, but in the last 15 years, through preservation efforts that restored many of its Art Deco gems, the Bund has again become a showpiece of architecture and high-end hotels and restaurants. It is Shanghai’s most popular visitor destination.

By 2020, city officials expect a new business district and cruise port to open in the north Bund, with more than 30 new glass office towers. The south Bund is also undergoing gentrification; more than 100 historic buildings and wharves are being converted into mixed-use structures for startup firms, luxury residential apartments, hotels and riverside restaurants, creating more than 65 million square feet of new space.

With development of the Lujiazui Pudong Financial District continuing at a fast pace, city officials are making sure transportation links between these two important sections of Shanghai can handle the millions of residents and visitors who cross the river every day. Within the past decade, the government has constructed 10 bridges and 15 tunnels across the Huangpu, and older ferry terminals are being retrofitted to handle the increase in cross-river traffic. More than 20 new metro stops in Pudong have spurred the construction of corporate office towers, banking centers and hotels in an area that was farmland less than 20 years ago.

Shanghai Tower, a spiral-shaped, 1,900-foot (121 stories) skyscraper in the Lujiazui zone, is slated to be China’s tallest building, and the second-tallest in the world, when completed in 2014. Called a “vertical city” by its design firm, Gensler, the building will include office and hotel floors, restaurants, conference space and retail outlets.

Shanghai has about 400 regionally headquartered multinationals, helping the city attract $8.5 billion in foreign investment in the first half of 2013. Another 150 multinationals are expected by 2020, attracted by new financial incentives issued by the city, including subsidies and duty exemptions, to encourage firms to set up headquarters and research and development centers in satellite cities outside downtown, especially in the industries of new-generation information technology, high-end machinery equipment, new energy and biomedicine.

“Shanghai has evolved into a modern, cosmopolitan metropolis, providing not only a good environment for residents to work and live, but also a strong infrastructure for businesses to thrive and prosper,” said Andrew Au, CEO of Citi China.

Other major development projects include the Hongqiao Business Center near Hongqiao Airport, where the Dutch firm MVRDV is constructing 10 architecturally savvy office towers and an underground shopping center accessed by two giant glass cubes. Each building will have a planted green roof, with a jogging track on top of one building. The project will be completed in 2015. Lingang, a former coastal wetlands area 30 miles from downtown, is now a satellite city with 60,000 residents, where private and municipal developers are constructing duty-free shopping outlets, two theme parks, aircraft manufacturing zones and a new metro line. The almost $4 billion Shanghai Disney Resort, expected to open in late 2015, will include Shanghai Disneyland; two hotels; retail, dining and entertainment venues; recreational facilities; a lake; and various transportation modes — all part of this huge, 1,000-acre project.

“With an increase in international flights and business growth, Shanghai has become a major meetings city,” said Patrick Chen, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration. “We now have seven convention facilities, and a new one, the Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Center of International Sourcing, will open in late 2013. Doing business in Shanghai is not just for large Chinese or multinational firms anymore. Startups, including many with young American entrepreneurs, are finding niche markets to exploit, and the networking assistance from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai is excellent.”

Despite China’s slowing economy with “only” a 7.5 percent increase in gross domestic product expected this year (an enviable figure for any other country) and continuing concerns over housing bubbles, urban air pollution, the European economy, rural unemployment and a contracting manufacturing sector, Shanghai’s burgeoning high-tech, information and services industries seem to make it immune from many of these national issues. The city’s GDP is higher than the national average, domestic consumption within the city is growing, and new construction projects begin every day. These new hotels, office and apartment towers, high-tech research and development zones, metro lines, highways and high-speed rail tracks, medical centers, shopping malls and museums constantly remake Shanghai’s scale and skyline.

“Our Rolls-Royce car owners in Shanghai are five to 10 years younger than the average age for them globally,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, during this year’s AutoChina Shanghai car show. “They are young, motivated and trendy Chinese entrepreneurs, and 10 percent are women.”

Shanghai’s innovative business scene and its sophisticated lifestyle are not typical of mainland Chinese cities, not yet, and most of Shanghai’s residents are not buying luxury automobiles. However, with an expected population of almost 30 million by 2030, the business community is certainly representative of China’s national goals, where young managers and designers in technology-driven industries and satellite city architecture will play a big role in the country’s economy.

Shanghai Film Museum © Xankee | Dreamstime.com

Things to do in Shanghai

Modern art, film and architecture are driving Shanghai’s cultural transformation. More than 400 museums have opened in the last five years. The Shanghai Film Museum opened in June during the 16th Shanghai Film Festival. Shanghai has more movie theaters (122) than any other Chinese city and is known as the birthplace (1913) of China’s movie industry; box office sales in 2012 grew 22 percent over the previous year. Many of this museum’s 3,000 objects appeal to non-Chinese visitors.

The Power Station of Art, which opened in 2012, features Chinese and international contemporary art, with eclectic permanent and rotating exhibitions. The huge exhibition space is housed in the former 1897 Nanshi Power Plant and is quite impressive. The neon-lit, 500-foot original power plant chimney was left standing as a testament to Shanghai’s earlier industrial era. Across the river from PSA is the equally stunning China Art Palace, with 600,000 square feet of exhibition space in the former Chinese pavilion of Expo 2010. The two-story, 300-foot animated version of an ancient Chinese scroll is the most talked-about art object in the city.

Other interesting art museums and galleries, all opened within the last year or two, include the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (metro stop People’s Square); Rockbund Art Museum (Nanjang Dong); China Art Museum (Yaohua Lu); Minsheng Art Museum (Hongqiao Road); island6, M97 and Gallery 55, all in the revitalized M50 Art District (Zhongtan Lu); OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (Qufu Lu); Bazaar Compatible (Hongqiao Lu); Long Museum (Huamu Road Station); and Shanghai K11 Art Mall (Huangpi Lu).

Two interesting, post-modern structures include Arata Isozaki’s Himalayas Centre in Pudong, which includes the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, the Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum, the DaGuan Theatre, dining venues and a shopping center (Huamu Road). In the northern part of the city is the Shanghai Museum of Glass, designed by the German firm Logon, where a former glass-making workshop has been transformed into a 37,000-square-foot exhibition space of contemporary glass artwork and futuristic pieces (Tonghe Xincun).

Shanghai Glass Museum © Angela Ostafichuk | Dreamstime.com

CHECKING IN WITH LUCAS ENGLEHARDT

Founder and CEO, Delivery Hero China

IS SHANGHAI A GOOD PLACE FOR A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR WHO WANTS TO START A NEW BUSINESS IN CHINA?

I’m originally from Rochester, N.Y., and came to China to study in 2004, but I fell in love with the culture and fast pace in Shanghai. I decided to start my own business here, an online restaurant delivery website called AiMifan (downtown workers could order meals from various restaurants by looking at one website via computer or smartphone and get fast delivery). This was not a common custom when I started. Our website is in Chinese and English, and the business was so successful it was acquired by the German company Delivery Hero. We changed the name locally to Delivery Hero China; the German parent company operates the same business model in 14 countries.

Any new business in China needs to have a presence in Shanghai or Beijing, ideally both, to have access to the top managers and upscale markets. Shanghai, with its dense business districts, is better suited for an online delivery model, whether it’s food or other products. For foreign and domestic startup firms, Shanghai is making progress, with support from grassroots organizations and government incentives.

WAS IT RISKY TO LAUNCH A STARTUP IN SHANGHAI, WITH ITS VERY COMPETITIVE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND HEAVY GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONS?

A business that thinks having low labor costs is the answer to making huge profits should look elsewhere, as Shanghai is not an easy place to operate; but firms making a long-term commitment, knowing everything here takes time, can be rewarded in the long run. Given Shanghai’s growing global importance, a startup can make money here, but success for foreign companies in Shanghai is closely tied to how local the firm’s Chinese managers are, as they are the ones who understand local tastes and competition. The Shanghai market is hyper-competitive, very complex; consumer preferences are unique, and the government is always playing a role. Foreign companies, big or small, have been and can continue to be successful here by operating locally using global best practices.

Shanghai Info to Go

Pudong International Airport (PVG), located 27 miles from People’s Square, is Shanghai’s main international airport. The high-speed Maglev Airport Express Train (156+ mph) leaves every 10 minutes for metro line No. 2 station at Longyang Road in Pudong ($8, eight minutes); from Longyang Road passengers connect to regular metro trains to downtown (50 cents, 15 minutes) or take taxis to Pudong hotels. Travelers can opt to take metro line No. 2 from the airport to downtown without using Maglev ($2, 60–75 minutes). Other options include the Airport Express Bus ($3, 45–90 minutes) or taxis ($30–50, 45–90 minutes).

Hongquaio Airport (SHN), located eight miles from downtown, is mostly for domestic flights, with some international routes. For downtown hotels use the nearby metro stations ($1–1.50, 40–60 minutes) or taxis ($20–35, 30–50 minutes).

Shanghai: Just the Facts

Time Zone: GMT +8
Phone Code: Country code: 86 City code: 21
Currency: Chinese yuan renminbi
Official Languages: Chinese, often spoken in the Mandarin dialect. English is understood in most high-end hotels and restaurants, tourist shops and corporate offices.
Key Industries: Finance, software and information technology, service industries, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, tourism

Where to Stay in Shanghai

Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai The newest hotel in Pudong’s Lujiazui Financial District features 318 guestrooms and 44 suites overlooking the Huangpu, with six restaurants and bars, a spa, meeting rooms and a 75-foot indoor pool. 111 Pudong Road S., Pudong $$$$

The PuLi Hotel and Spa This 193-room, 36-suite Design Hotel near Jing’an Temple, the French Concession district and Park Place shopping and office complex features an exquisite interior, the noted Long Bar and Anantara Spa. 1 ChangDe Road, Jing’an $$$$

Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai The full-service business and upscale leisure property features 952 guestrooms, a Horizon Club floor, banquet and conference facilities, a spa, recreational opportunities and seven restaurants. 33 Fu Cheng Road, Pudong $$$$

Restaurants in Shanghai

Jade on 36 Enjoy fine French dining and exceptional views from the 36th floor of the Shangri-La’s Grand Tower. Chef Franck Elie Laloum incorporates local vegetables and spices into the menu. Pudong Shangri-La, East Shanghai, 33 Fu Cheng Road, Pudong $$$–$$$$

Mercato Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s second Shanghai restaurant has a snazzy interior of exposed steel and glass with rustic wood floors. The Italian-themed menu ranges from wood-fired pizza to gourmet fish dinners. 6F, Three on the Bund No. 3, Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road $$–$$$$

Y2C2 At this gourmet restaurant in the newly renovated Wharf District, floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the river and the Pudong skyline. Classic and contemporary Cantonese dishes are beautifully presented. 5F, 579 Waima Road, Huangpu $$$$

Read more about Shanghai’s shikumen neighborhood.