Shanghai has 116,000 millionaires. And Louis Vuitton has the largest luxury store in China in the City. Piers Morgan showcased the City on Tuesday evening on his show. It looked a amazing! (I wasn’t sure about the red wine and coke drink that is favoured).

The Huxinting Tea House - Starbucks for China?

I went to a briefing last week – in preparation for my forthcoming visit to the World Expo in late August 2010. It was in interesting insight into what is in store for my week-long trip.

Some of the speakers have already visited the Expo site – queues of 6 hours are apparently normal for some of the pavilions – notably the Saudi Arabia ‘entry’. The London Pavilion is regarded as the first zero carbon building in Shanghai. It is also a ‘legacy building’, meaning it will remain at the end of the Expo – unlike many fo the buildings which will be bulldozed.

20 million people have now visited the Expo site – with over 500,000 now visiting each day! 70 million are expected to have gone through the turnstiles by the time it finishes at the end of October.

It seems entirely appropriate that Shanghai was chosen for the Expo. It is set to be the gateway for the world and to the world. With a GDP of $218bn it really does have ambitions to be noticed on the world stage. The growth rate in China was an impressive 11.9% last year. The middle classes are becoming ‘brand conscious’ – hence the growth of Louis Vuitton and the like!

I was warned that ‘shopping’ isn’t really an option for westerners. The import tax is high and goods are often twice the price we pay back home. I guess it makes a change from being in ‘rip off Britain‘? I also guess I won’t be shopping much.

As Piers Morgan pointed out at the end of his show a recent survey suggested that 83% of Shanghai residents believe that tomorrow will be better than today… no wonder they are growing at pace. They have a confidence and belief we could learn from.