Shanghai, China — On my left was history, a row of buildings built by the British in the 19th century. On my right, across a river busy with container ships, was the surreal skyline of Shanghai's Pudong district.

A decade ago the area was mostly swamp and squat homes. Today the cityscape is a testament to China's economic rise: the Pearl Tower, a glimmering spire of spheres and poles; the World Financial Center, a 101-story tower that is the world's third-tallest building; and thousands of high-rise apartments.

Craig Simons / AJC (ENLARGE)

Shanghai's futuristic skyline is a testament to China's rapid economic growth.

Craig Simons / AJC (ENLARGE)

A Shanghai resident watches street life on Dongtai Road.

RELATED LINKS: • Photos: See Shanghai • Int'l tourism offices • Navigating Hartsfield-Jackson and more airport resources • More international travel ideas

Those dichotomies — past and future; Chinese and global — epitomize Shanghai, China's largest and most cosmopolitan city.

For American travelers, Shanghai is also China's easiest gateway. Many Shanghai residents speak English, traffic is orderly, and the city's infrastructure is China's best.

For Georgians, getting to Shanghai also became easier March 30 with the first nonstop flight from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The daily route operated by Delta departs at 10:05 a.m. and deposits visitors almost 16 hours later at Shanghai's futuristic Pudong International Airport.

I had a shorter flight this month when I planned a two-day visit from Beijing, a trip that could easily be extended to a week or combined with stops in other Chinese cities. Suzhou, a small city 30 minutes by train from Shanghai, is famous for its beautiful Chinese gardens. In nearby Hangzhou, tourists can visit temples and pavilions once used by Chinese emperors.

I wanted to see how Shanghai has maintained its Chinese character while becoming a center of global culture. I started my tour on a Thursday morning on Nanjing West Road Alley 1025, a pedestrian lane that meanders between brick buildings that date to the 1920s.

Shanghai is a walker's city, full of tiny shops and vibrant street life best explored by ducking down whatever alley grabs your fancy. This pedestrian street offered a perfect introduction for first-time visitors: Vendors sold vegetables and fruit from baskets and live fish from plastic tubs; residents paused to chat with friends, hang laundry from bamboo poles and play with friendly dogs; a man sold steamed breads from his bicycle.

I stopped to talk with a middle-aged woman who grew up in the community. She scowled when I asked if she would move to one of the ubiquitous new high rises in the Pudong district.

"No one knows each other in those," she said as she waved to a friend. "I'd never go."

Over nearly a decade in China, I have most appreciated its strong sense of community and the raucous, colorful tumble of smells, sights and sounds in neighborhoods where life happens outside and everyone knows each other. The walk energized me.

China's cuisines also are major attractions, and a few blocks west of the lane, I turned onto Wujiang Road and meandered between stalls selling delicacies from across the country — spicy and mouth-numbing rice noodles from Sichuan, grilled oysters from the south, pan-fried dumplings from the north.

I was hungry, but I had planned to eat at the Nan-xiang Steamed Bun restaurant, Shanghai's most famous eatery for "baozi," a local delicacy similar to won tons. So I took a taxi to the Yu Yuan Bazaar, a popular shopping area next to a pleasant garden (Yu Garden, first built in the 1560s).

When I arrived at the building at noon, 50 people were waiting to buy takeout, so I found a seat in a crowded dining room where it is customary to sit with strangers.

Baozi are steamed flour buns with meat fillings. I sat next to Bao Haixia, a local woman who worked for a Spanish trading company and who explained why the restaurant's buns are considered exceptional:

"The skin is thin and the filling is a mixture of pork and crab," she said. "They're the sweetest baozi in Shanghai and maybe in all of China."

When my meal arrived — 16 of the beautifully folded, bite-size buns for about $2 — I was suitably impressed. Each was delicious, and as I ate, I chatted with Bao's Spanish boyfriend about how Shanghai has become a globally important city.

"Like in New York or London, you can find anything here," he said. "Just walk around and see."

I wanted to. But I also wanted to see China's history. After wandering through the Chang Huang Temple district behind the Yu Garden — a fascinating neighborhood where tourists can have their watches repaired, their pants ironed and their teeth cleaned at roadside stalls — I hailed another taxi and headed for the Shanghai Museum, one of China's best collections of traditional arts and artifacts.

I began in a hall showcasing bronze tools and containers and was impressed by the craftsmanship achieved as early as the 18th century B.C. The museum's exhibitions of sculptures and pottery were also excellent as was a gallery showing early paintings, including beautiful scrolls depicting life in imperial Chinese towns.

Leaving the museum, I crossed the street to the city's Urban Planning Museum to get an overview of Shanghai's development. The British claimed the port in 1842 after humiliating China's army in the first Opium War, and they quickly transformed it from a fishing village into Asia's most prosperous city.

After China's communists took power in 1949 and closed the nation to foreign trade, Shanghai largely languished.

But in today's market economy under Communist rule, the city is again booming: The best part of the museum is an enormous model of how Shanghai will look in 2020 — a breathtaking jungle of buildings and roads that makes New York look tame.

Hungry after so much walking, I joined friends for dinner at a restaurant popular with locals. Jesse Restaurant has a well-deserved reputation for the best Shanghainese food — characterized by copious use of sugar, soy sauce and vinegar — at reasonable prices. Two highly recommended dishes are dates stuffed with glutinous rice and red-braised pork — pork rump cooked in a sweet gravy.

On my second day, I focused on Shanghai's role as a mixing pot of Chinese and foreign elements.

I started at Xintiandi, a shopping area in a restored section of traditional buildings, and 210 Taikang Road, a more local district of cafes and shops selling art, handmade pottery and locally designed clothing.

A visit to the area should also include stops at a nearby antiques market on Dongtai Road and at a large (and unnamed) bird and animal market where vendors sell fighting crickets and dozens of bird species.

After a quick lunch, I headed to 50 Moganshan Road, a former factory converted into art studios and galleries and one of China's places to trace the impact of its economic and cultural opening.

At M97, the largest contemporary photography gallery in Shanghai, owner Steve Harris explained that China's sudden and rapid growth has created a unique incubator for creativity.

"The main reason Chinese art has taken off is because of the internal political and social situation where the country was so isolated but now has begun to interact with the world," he said.

One result of that collision has been provocative art.

After touring M97 and several other galleries, I felt intellectually overloaded, which required Shanghai's best medicine. I joined friends for dinner at Whampoa Club, by my reckoning the best modern Chinese restaurant in Shanghai. We gorged ourselves on wasabi-spiced shrimp (a house specialty) and diced chicken with pickled red peppers, the chef's variation of General Tso's chicken that was staggeringly better than any version of the dish I've eaten in the United States.

The setting, however, was more impressive. The restaurant is in a seven-story building overlooking the Bund, the line of formerly British buildings along the Huangpu River.

From a rooftop deck, the skyline was a perfect metaphor for the city itself. On the Bund side of the river, ornate buildings with crisp Chinese flags wound northward; across the Huangpu, Pudong rose in a symphony of flashing lights and soaring steel skyscrapers.

Past and future; China and the world. The view was a perfect ode to Shanghai.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Delta's new nonstop flight leaves Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport daily at 10:05 am., starting today. Return flights leave Shanghai at 3:45 pm. Introductory airfare is under $600 roundtrip.

Visa information

A visa as well as a passport are required for entry to China. Visas cost $130 for U.S. citizens and take about four business days to process (expedited service can be completed in one business day for an additional $30, or in two to three business days for $20 more). Applications have to be made in person or through an authorized agent; a travel agency or a visa service can handle this transaction. Information at www.china-embassy.org/eng/hzqz/default.htm . Also, the U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for China's Tibet region; to check on travel alerts anywhere in the world, see travel.state.gov .

Where to stay

• Jia Shanghai offers comfortable doubles with built-in kitchens as well as complementary breakfasts, afternoon tea and evening wine for $360 per night. The hotel opened recently and discounts are available until the end of May. www.jiashanghai.com , 011 86 21-6217-9000

• The Astor House was established in 1846 and offers some of the most interesting rooms in the city as well as good views of the Bund. Comfortable double-occupancy rooms in an older part of the hotel are offered for $175. Rooms in a newly renovated "executive wing" cost roughly $40 more per night and come with computers and other amenities. Ask for discounts. www.pujianghotel.com , 011 86 21-6324-6388

What to do

Get a free tourist map from your hotel concierge and ask him or her to mark locations. Most sights listed here are easy to find.

• The Shanghai Museum (free entrance) and Urban Planning Museum (about $4) are open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

• Most shops at Xintiandi and 210 Taikang Road (get off at number 210 and walk into the pedestrian alley) open at 10 a.m. From Xintiandi it is easy to walk to the antiques market on Dongtai Road, several blocks east on Zhizhong Road. To get to the bird and fish market, walk one block further east on Zhizhong Road and turn left on Tibet Road; the market is half a block on the right.

• Galleries in the Moganshan Road area are spread among several former factories. Take a taxi to 50 Moganshan Road and walk from there. The M97 gallery is at 97 Moganshan Road.

• Nanjing West Road Alley 1025 is two blocks away from the Jia Shanghai hotel. The concierge can point the way.

Where to eat

• Jesse Restaurant, 41 Tianping Road, serves excellent and reasonably priced Shanghainese food. A dinner for two without alcohol costs about $40. 011 86 21-6282-9260

• Whampoa Club, 3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road, is more expensive but worth the price; a dinner for two runs about $100. Leave time for a drink at New Heights on the seventh floor of the same building. 011 86 21-6321-3737, www.threeonthebund.com

Both restaurants are busy and reservations are needed.

Information

Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission, lyw.sh.gov.cn