Those who are weary of the woes of capitalism should come to Shanghai in the spring. In the business capital of the world's most populous economy, visions of greatness are in the air, springing up right next to the tulips, the overpriced boutiques and the skyscrapers.

Shanghai's consumers are spending like there is no financial crisis, buying swanky cars and even swankier handbags, eating in restaurants and doing all those fun things westerners dimly remember from the easy credit age. The city's policymakers are laying plans for a future that includes building ever taller office towers and more opulent hotel rooms, until it takes over the world of Asian finance by 2020 as one of the world's premier financial centres.

Shanghai plans to spearhead China's transformation from sweatshop to service economy, attracting not just multinational corporations that want to make a quick buck off 1.3bn Chinese consumers – but innovators eager to leverage the wisdom and work ethic of a new generation of Chinese engineers to staff their R&D centres.