"Whore of the Orient, Paris of the East; city of quick riches, ill-gotten gains and fortunes lost on the tumble of dice; the domain of adventurers, swindlers, gamblers, drug runners, tycoons, missionaries, gangsters and backstreet pimps; the city that plots revolution and dances as the revolution shoots its way into town" is how the Lonely Planet on China describes Shanghai prior to the Communist revolution. Since then, a lot has changed. After the Chinese government dropped some of its Communist principles and decided to embrace capitalism in a form which it calls "socialist market economics", Shanghai has been unstoppable. It is now one of the largest, most modern, and richest cities in China. It grows and changes at an astonishing rate. The Pudong area of town, which used to be farmland until 1990, offers an impressive
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