Although economic reforms of Shanghai started only in 1990, a decade later than many other Chinese provinces, since then Shanghai quickly overtook and upper-handed all provinces, still maintaining its leading role as business centre of China.
The port of Shanghai is the busiest in the world. In 2005, it is classified Number 1 in the world with regard to cargo movement and dealing in 2007 with a sum of 560 million tons of cargo and even outdoing Hong Kong in container traffic and being now the second busiest port after Singapore. Competition between Shanghai and Hong Kong never ends to become the economic centre of China. Hong Kong is characterized by lower taxes, higher economic freedom, stronger legal system, up-to-date banking services and full free currency exchange. On the other hand, Shanghai has easier and stronger bonds to both Mother China and the central government, besides deeply rooted stems in manufacturing and technology. 
Shanghai was alert early for the importance of education and training, so the workforce is highly educated and qualified. The economic growth of Shanghai is remarkable by double-digit growth for 15 consecutive years since the economic reforms and this rate is considered the highest on the world. The stock exchange market is the fastest growing in the world.
Shanghai did not forget the importance of construction of buildings for fueling the economy, and one can notice easily the revolution that happened in buildings with unique designs and restaurants on top. For a gallery of these architectures styles, look at Shanghai (architecture images). The policy of building is to construct various heights, colors and designs. For the sake of ecology, there is a strong trend of planners for green areas like public parks between buildings, so providing better health and beauty.