New Higher Skyline, Shanghai China

30 Years of Growth: Shanghai Now and Then Shanghai, China, the fastest-growing city in the world. 30 years ago, is Shanghai's financial district of Pudong, dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower, and the new 125-story Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building and the world's second tallest skyscraper, at 632 meters (2,073 ft) high. Lujiazui ( Chinese: 陆家嘴), formerly known as Lokatse from its pronunciation in Shanghainese, is a locality in Shanghai, a peninsula formed by a bend in the Huangpu River. Since the early 1990s, Lujiazui has been developed specifically as a new financial district of Shanghai. The decision to earmark Lujiazui for this purpose reflects its location: it is located on the east side of the Huangpu River in Pudong, and sits directly across the river from the old financial and business district of the Bund. Lujiazui is a national-level development zone designated by the government. In 2005, the State Council reaffirmed the positioning of the 31.78 km2 Lujiazui area as the only finance and trade zone among the 185 state-level development zones in mainland China.