ABSTRACT
Was the Asian economic and financial crisis a bad dream? Glittering skyscrapers, citadels of concrete and steel, bustling streets with vendors and consumers, super freeways crisscrossing Shanghai. A few months ago I sat in my room at the Shangri-La Hotel in Pudong and looked across a vast canal at the skyline. Here, in overlooking the planned high-tech and manufacturing complex next door to Shanghai, it was easy to see why China’s GDP is growing above the level of eight percent per annum.
