DVD? Bags? Watches? Ladies? Massage? Shanghai is the shimmering gem of the PRC pragmatic approach to market reforms. The ruling discourse of state-mandated economic and developmental pragmatism transpires from the most evident aspects of the city: its urban development, its demographics, and even its overabundance of seemingly identical corner stores. Is the whole of China going to look like this in the next 40 years? Possibly not, and that's due to the PRC outlook on development: Shanghai is bound to be a unique place for decades to come. If not for its incredible history and boom-town status, at least for its excruciating real estate prices ;)