If Beijing is the debutante in hasty preparation for her coming out party in 2008, then her younger, raucous sister is leaving behind a rebellious youth to take on a welcome air of maturity. As prospects look good with the announcement from Monaco of the winning bid to host Expo 2010, the city is sitting on the cusp of rightful global presence.

　　With the successful staging of the 2001 APEC Conference, city thinkers accomplished the task of uniting past and present with the official leaders?wearing of traditional fabric and coloured Chinese Tang-style jackets. The world noticed. The city did herself proud. Gone are the heady days of hedonism and vice, replaced with a focus second only to the northern capital. At the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Shanghai lay incumbent in a time warp, showing little signs of change or progress, until this newly-determined maturity emerged. Drawing on her potential, using talents from commerce and technology, a strong, perseverant labour pool and amazing foresight, the city has risen like a modern phoenix, sketching a jagged skyline of modern skyscrapers, a new airport and attracting a great number of foreign investors. Furthermore, many natives who left for education overseas are returning in large numbers. It is significant that a fistful of strong politicians from Shanghai are now taking on well-earned positions of responsibility in the People's Congress.

　　One only has to look at the former downbeat factory area of Pudong to remark on the progressive change. The single Pearl TV Tower, a unique structure that revels in metallic contemporary bliss on the Huangpu shore, Yangtze tributary, is centred in the bustling port and harbour area. In harmony with the past, its full basement complex is given over to a thoughtful montage of city history that does nothing to conceal its blemishes. It's all on display there from the original Confucian philosophies to the birth of political uprisings culminating in the surreptitious founding of the Communist Party in 1921.The city was prettied up with 16th century gardens of old, but brought to its knees by opiate addiction in the 19th century. Colonial intervention originated with friendly international concessions from Europe and Japan, but contempt later circulated among foreign merchants in the Bund against the impoverished Chinese, and led to a frivolous, flamboyant lawlessness in the world war years. Fast-forward to the 21st century when the rocket-like TV tower offers more than function; it is a symbol of the future.

　　A short stroll familiarizes the street walker with a seamless view of the city. In front of the sleek Shanghai Contemporary Historical Museum is the newly landscaped People's Park, a gathering place for young and old, national or tourist,swheresfountains and sculptures share space with the original Jockey Club. It's not far to the exquisite Nanjing

　　Shopping street for everything fashionable, but neither is it far to the open air street marketsswheresducks, vegetables, fruit and clothing hang in stallsswheresthey always have.

　　Zig-zag walkways and antique markets may be reminders of a spiritual past, but cash registers and credit cards hint at a prosperous present. The styles of architecture of the Bund can be viewed without neck-stretching from a waterside park and promenade across the street, a favourite walk for one and all presided over by a benevolent Mao statue. Across the river, the modernity of the city is a work in progress. The greenscape here and others, like the traditional Yu Yuan Gardens, dotted throughout the city soften the noise and pollution from the dense traffic. Shanghai is indeed a city of contrasts.

　　As Shanghai elbowssintosprominence, there is no doubt that she will be a major contributing factor in the next decade of transforming her motherlandsintosa world force to be reckoned with.