Lujiazui’s iconic skyline is used ubiquitously to depict the city and is, in many ways, not only a symbol of Shanghai but of the rise of China as a whole. The pocket of land nestled into a bend in the Huangpu River was a rice paddy in the early ‘90s yet is now home to dozens of skyscrapers, including the recently completed World Financial Center – the third tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Taipei 101. These buildings house more than 500 of the world’s top financial and insurance companies and make the area China’s de facto financial capital.
