Pudong, full name Pudong New Area, is a zone one and a half times larger than urban Shanghai on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River and stretches all the way to the East China Sea. In 1990, development plans were announced and the famous symbol of Shanghai, the Oriental Pearl Tower was built.
Prior to development plans, the area stood as a marshy expanse of farmland that provided vegetables to markets in Shanghai. The government would have no more of that and declared the area to be the grounds of the new economic zone that would allow companies wanting to get a foothold in the Chinese market to do so. And it worked. By the end of the decade, US$30 billion had been invested in the area and it accounted for 20% of the city's GDP. Pudong has increased to 26.9% of Shanghai's GDP in 2009. One can stand on the Bund and look out over the countless buildings and skyscrapers that make up Pudong's skyline and see the pace of development in Shanghai.
