Ten years ago I arranged to meet a friend at the Peace Hotel, -- once known as the Cathay -- a shabby old relic on Shanghai’s Bund, one of those Somerset Maughamish, Graham Greenish places where expats once got toddied up and felt jolly good. I sat down at a table and ordered a beer. The waiter went to an ancient refrigerator next to the bar, pulled out a bottle, brought it to me, slammed it down unopened and walked away. It took me another ten minutes to get an opener and a glass. When my friend arrived we went upstairs to the hotel’s funerael dining room. It had a view of the Bund behind dirty windows and faded velour drapes. We received similar treatment and a bad meal.

Returning to the bar, however, we discovered what has since become a major tourist attraction, the Old Jazz Band, a bunch of geezers playing traditional jazz…and a killer rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

Several years ago, the world media discovered the Boyz on the Bund, the ante was raised and the charm level lowered. Service is better, but there is a ten dollar cover charge and the old guys are often replaced by younger stand-ins.

Shanghai just ain't what it used to be. Many of its old European-style architectural treasures have been torn down and replaced by towers of glass. Neighborhoods are demolished with a week's notice. I was told that the occupancy rate of this new construction runs about 40%...build it and they will come. The skyline of Pudong, across from the Bund, looks like the city of Flash Gordon's nemesis the evil emperor Ming with its TV tower and assortment of aerosol cans. Today's Shanghai is where rich young entrepreneurs strut their stuff, disco 'til dawn and and dine in restaurants that rival those of New York in quality and price. Four of us, sharing one bottle of wine, ran up a tab of about US$600 one night at an Indian restaurant.

Some see Hong Kong withering as China hedges its bets on Shanghai. Hong Kong money is building many of these highrises, however.

The Shanghai Museum is a gem, one of the most professional operations I have seen anywhere. It doesn't come close in rivaling the National Palace Museum in Taiwan for the depth of its collection of Chinese artifacts but what it has it displays supurbly. English interpretations are concise and extremely informative and the quality of the objects in its gift shop is excellent.