The newly constructed streets of Pudong, unlike the tightly compacted and crowded streets of Puxi and Shanghai's Old Town across the river, appear huge and empty by comparison.
However, with China's acceptance into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, the largest corporations of six continents will increasingly focus upon China's lucrative market of 1.3 billion people. Combined with a variety of government-sponsored incentives to set up shop here, the next decade will see businesses from around the world competing for space to set up their China-based headquarters in Shanghai, which means these streets won't be empty for long.