When riding the blazingly fast maglev train away from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, it becomes apparent that China has arrived as a world superpower, and much like the 267.8 mph train that opened in 2003, Shanghai is the city that brought China here. One need only look at the prolific skyscrapers of the Pudong district with its Oriental Pearl Tower and Jin Mao Tower, two of the world’s tallest manmade structures, or Donghai Bridge, the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, to know that Shanghai is among the world’s most modern cities.

A far cry from the ancient imperial histories of Beijing or Xian, Shanghai is representative of the new China. Located where the Yangtze River Delta and the Pacific Ocean meet, Shanghai, which literally translates as “on the sea,” was historically a small fishing village. Today, Shanghai is the most populated city in the world’s most populated country. The seeds of modern day China were planted throughout Shanghai: birthplace of the founder of the Chinese Republic Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, location of the first congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, and hometown of basketball superstar and China’s unofficial international ambassador, Yao Ming.

During the late Qing dynasty, Shanghai’s strategic location as the gateway to the rich interior of the Yangtze River, an area which produces the vast amounts of food necessary to feed all of China, made it the envy of international powers looking to trade with China. With imperial power weakening in the mid-19th century, Shanghai became the playground of foreign imperialists, who brought with them industry, Western finance, and modernization, the vestiges of which can still be seen in the architecture of the Bund and the French Concession.

By the time of the Kuomintang Republic, Shanghai was the world’s third greatest financial center behind only New York and London. With the Communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai became largely impoverished due to heavy taxation from the central government as well as the purging of “bourgeois elements.” After the economic reforms of the late 20th century, Shanghai has led China’s economic resurgence with a GDP that dwarfs that of all other regions except for Hong Kong.

Shanghai is a potent political and cultural force as well. Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin was first the mayor of Shanghai. The city served as the breeding ground for the right-leaning “Shanghai-clique” which was fiercely critical of the Cultural Revolution and highly influential in the recent reforms. Even with its modernist tendencies, Shanghai is a bastion of traditional culture with famous schools of the arts such as the Songjiang School, the Huating School, and the Shanghai School. However, Shanghai’s most famous cultural school still may be the Chin Woo Athletic School of Wushu created by China’s most famous modern martial arts hero, Huo Yuanjia.

Despite its cosmopolitan character, Shanghai will seduce you with its intimacy. Whether by taking in a scenic view of the historic Bund from a boat ride along the Huangpu river or savoring the flavor explosion of Shanghai’s famous xiao long bao, (“little dragon buns”), Shanghai will leave a lasting impression.

To live and study in Shanghai is to have your fingers at the pulse of modern China. More than anything, one comes away with a greater understanding of the nation’s recent past and bright future. As Shanghai races into the 21st century, the rest of the country is hitching along on her coattails. We hope you come along for the ride. Don’t blink or you might miss it!