From fishing village to super-city in 50 years, then forgotten by the world until its revival began in the early '90s, Shanghai’s history is one of boom and bust. Now it’s making a major comeback, and it’s an amazing spectacle. Buildings go up (and down) overnight, traffic seems to double every week and the whole city buzzes. Encapsulating this is Lujiazui. On the eastern bank of the Huangpu River, known as Pudong, (the old city is on the west, Puxi) this is China’s Manhattan, a forest of skyscrapers, all built in the last ten years. Before that it was farmland. The 468-metre-high Oriental Pearl Tower (+862158791888) and the 420-metre Jinmao Tower (+862150475101) are the tallest of the lot and either is worth climbing.

Opposite Lujiazui is The Bund, Shanghai’s brick and marble monument to early-20th-century Western colonialism. Of all these former banks, trading houses and hotels, the Peace Hotel (see hotels below) and the old HSBC building (now the Pudong Development Bank) are both worth a look inside. For more of old Shanghai take a walk around, there is an amazing array of architecture, both foreign and Chinese, all over the city.

The former French quarter centres on Huaihai Road. On the main road the old facades are mostly obscured by modern signage, but along Fuxing Road (two blocks south of Huai hai) the views are clearer. The old Chinese city focuses on Chenghuangmiao (the City god temple, 249 Fangbang Zhong Lu). This area itself is good for picking up cheap traditional Chinese style gifts but head east and south of here towards the river for some amazing scenes of unaltered, old Shanghai.

For a good description of how all these different parts of Shanghai came into being, check out the Shanghai History Museum (No.1 Shiji Dadao, +862158791888 ext.80449, entry RMB25) in the basement of the Oriental Pearl. As a counter to this, see what the cty plans to look like in the future at the Shanghai Urban Planning Centre (100 Renmin Da Dao, at Xizang Lu, +862163184477), while the nearby Shanghai Museum (201 Renmin Dadao, +862163723500) houses probably the best collection of traditional Chinese art and artefacts in the world.

If people watching is your thing drag yourself out of bed one morning and get down to the nearest park. You will be met by thousands of Chinese pensioners doing their morning workout: Tai Ch’i, Qi Gong, ballroom dancing, aerobics – everything goes. The best spots for this are probably People’s Park (Renmin gongyuan, where Nanjing Xi and West converge) or Zhongshan Park (Zhongshan Park metro station).