6 ways Shanghai is different than the rest of China

The city and its residents were a synonym for Western fashion and open-minded attitudes, as different as could be from their Mao-pin wearing comrades. Its personality remains just as strong today. Shanghai is an unusual place. It's Chinese, but not entirely; its hybrid of Eastern and Western business and social traditions is found nowhere else in mainland China. Here are the things that make China's booming commercial hub a unique place in the world's most populous country, CNN reports. The Bund A number of pockets in China have impressive Western buildings -- the German Quarter in Qingdao, Russian buildings in Harbin -- but none provide the surreal feeling of "elsewhereness" like the Bund. The Bund refers to Shanghai's waterfront on the west bank of Huangpu River. Two dozen colossal Western structures, ranging in style from art deco to Victorian Gothic, stand side by side, forming a massive marble curtain. View it from afar and you'd think you were sailing into Liverpool. The 1,500-meter-long strip is a legacy passed down by one of the city's former rulers, Great Britain. It was largely built in the late-19th and early-20th centuries to establish Shanghai as the British Empire's trading hub of the Far East. The most magnificent building is today's number 10-12, the former HSBC building. When completed in 1923, the seven-story neoclassical landmark was dubbed "the most luxurious building from the Suez Canal to the Bering Strait." The building's original ceiling mural managed to survive the Cultural Revolution; the octagonal mosaic painting is one of the best-kept secrets in Shanghai. It's now in the lobby of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the building's current occupier. With the financial center's move to the east bank of Huangpu River, the old Bund has become a new home for world-class hotels, restaurants and retailers.