Shanghai is quite beautiful and unique, puxi and pudong are separated by the main river. Puxi is the historical district of shanghai, it contains architecture styles from all over the world because when west invaded china in the 1900s, they divided up puxi and each country built their own architecture style, so all the buildings are different. Luckily the japs didnt destroy them when they invaded.
Pudong is the new district, it started as vacant land in the 90s and now contains some of the world's most advanced highrises. So if you take a boat ride on the huangpu river, one side is the historical roman-esque landscape, other side is all modern futuristic skyscrapers, very distinct contrast.
Shanghai cityscape in 4 years, Shanghai Tower that's being constructed right now will be significantly taller than the rest.
Puxi historical district:
Here are some photos of the world trade expo 2010 (whole thing built from scratch in <3 years). i took them myself on my last trip.
Most people here believe chinese just copies and steals everything from us. I think that's how it was when they started to rise, but now it's scary how far in the dust they are leaving the usa behind. It took us 10, that's TEN fucking years just to START reconstructing the wtc - the symbol of american resolve.