Shanghai is the prototype of 'tomorrow’s China’. Over 17 million people live and work in this city today, and numbers are constantly on the increase due to an unabating stream of immigrants, arriving daily from surrounding rural areas, or perhaps it is Shanghai that is expanding into the countryside in pursuit of more space for its industrious activity…

In any case, when it comes to the modernisation of China, Shanghai is without doubt the role model, just as Deng Xiaoping had hoped. Often referred to as 'the Chinese Manhattan' by many foreign visitors for its amazing skyline, Shanghai is by far the richest place in China, and, of the 22 cities worldwide with more than 2 million inhabitants, Shanghai alone is home to more than 200 skyscrapers, with an incredible 400 more under construction. Only here do workers relentlessly work evening or even night shifts, and the sea port of Shanghai is literally usurping its South Korean counterpart, the harbour of Pusan, which until recently was undisputed Queen of the Yellow Sea. A masterpiece of German engineering, a magnetic levitation transport system, connects the international airport of Pudong directly to the city centre, taking travellers to their destination in just 7 minutes at top speeds of around 460 km/h!