The Paris of the East, the Pearl of the Orient, the Whore of Asia - in the first half of the 20th century, Shanghai was the playground for a globe-trotting elite. After the Second World War and China's Revolution, it seemed to be a city stored in mothballs, dusty and preserved. But no longer. Shanghai has burst upon the world stage, looking to reclaim its place of glory as a World City - it is in any event the world's most ambitious city.