Shanghai's economy
Shanghai is a major financial center and an emerging economic powerhouse. From the end of 1970, after the Cultural Revolution, economic reform has proceeded in a steady fashion. With that, Shanghai has been ballooned its economy as part of Special Economic Zone. But it was in 1990 when Shanghai 's long malaise came to an abrupt end, with the announcement of plans to develop Pudong on the eastern side of the Huangpu River . And Shanghai still has major problems. Foreign investors often complain that costs have risen so sharply that they have been forced to shift production out of Shanghai . And with the rapid development of economy, a lot of people who live in the countryside gather in Shanghai to find a job, and as a result they stayed in Shanghai for a long time.

Today Shanghai 's continual planning will circumvent their infrastructure problems; therefore some projects like freeway and subway systems continue to proceed. And even great facelift that plans are under way to build the tallest building in the world here, the Shanghai Shimao Building .
China's economy

Economy - overview:
In late 1978 the Chinese leadership began moving the economy from a sluggish, inefficient, Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented system. Whereas the system operates within a political framework of strict Communist control, the economic influence of non-state organizations and individual citizens has been steadily increasing. The authorities switched to a system of household and village responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprises in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. The result has been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity ( PPP ) basis, China in 2004 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US , although in per capita terms the country is still poor. Agriculture and industry have posted major gains especially in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan and in Shanghai , where foreign investment has helped spur output of both domestic and export goods. The leadership, however, often has experienced - as a result of its hybrid system - the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy and lassitude) and of capitalism (growing income disparities and rising unemployment). China thus has periodically backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals. The government has struggled to :

(a) sustain adequate jobs growth for tens of millions of workers laid off from state-owned enterprises, migrants, and new entrants to the work force;

(b) reduce corruption and other economic crimes; and

(c) keep afloat the large state-owned enterprises, many of which had been shielded from competition by subsidies and had been losing the ability to pay full wages and pensions.