Dubai = Shanghai on Steroids?

Interesting piece in the Far Eastern Economic Review, with their newly revamped site--very snazzy!

Shanghai on Steroids

Earlier Shanghai-Dubai Google searches have also led to tidbits that have intrigued me—though generally tidbits that should not surprise anyone familiar with the connections and competitions that often exist between cities that have attained or aspire to global city status. For example, I discovered through one search that nonstop flights link Shanghai and Dubai. From another that an American architect played a key role in designing both the Pudong's Jinmao Tower and the Burj skyscraper slated to become by far the tallest building in already skyscraper-filled Dubai. And from a still different one that both cities are racing to secure bragging rights as home to the tallest building on earth, a distinction that, according to some sources (there are varying methods for measuring this), Shanghai has just wrested from Taipei but Dubai will soon snatch.

I can see the Mori Tower from my office, a.k.a. the "Can-opener". Sure looks sleeker than Taipei 101's stack of Chinese takeout boxes!