Shanghai

For centuries a minor town on the Huangpu River, Shanghai opened the floodgates to foreign trade after the First Opium War in the 19th century and the rest, as they say, is history. A flurry of concessions were portioned out, merchant banks lined the waterfront Bund and people followed: British, French, Americans, Russians, industrialists, missionaries, artists and crooks. Until the war with Japan, Shanghai was where East and West collided in a riot of riches, glamour and vice. Reversing its fortunes after decades in the communist shadow, contemporary Shanghai is China's most populous and cosmopolitan city, its old spirit of adventure and possibility revived once again.