Standing on the stairs outside and gazing at the lights of this mega-city of some 18 million residents _ give or take a million or two _ Wong said he was certain that someday the car would be his. Never mind that he's an office clerk with a monthly salary that wouldn't pay for a set of tires for a Porsche 911. Never mind that the world is battling the worst recession in more than half a century. Never mind that the financial crisis has stomped China's export markets.

Forget all of that: This is Shanghai, New York with more bustle, an appetite for hyperbole that rivals Dubai's and a strut that would make Wall Street blush.

As Beijing's $585 billion stimulus package bankrolled China's world-beating growth this year, Shanghai has remained the country's capital of swagger _ and swag.

Although the port city's economic growth through June was reportedly its slowest first half since 1992, in upscale neighborhoods Louis Vuitton bags still seem to grow on cafe tables and Maseratis dart around beat-up taxis in noonday traffic.

There are questions aplenty about how strong China's financial fundamentals are, but most Shanghai residents don't have time for that kind of talk when there's cash to be borrowed, made or spent.

The result is a striking, if unspoken, tension between the sparkle and glitz on top and the complex issues in the shadows. Is the city riding an investment bubble funded by the government's bailout spending? How will things look after the stimulus plan stops? What happens if Americans stop buying so much stuff from China? Can China shift from an export-driven economy to one fueled by domestic consumption?

Or perhaps the country's future is so robust that those sorts of problems can be worked out along the way.

Wong, for one, couldn't care less.

"I've been thinking about buying a Porsche," he said in a confident tone before wading back into the crowds milling along the luxury boutiques of Nanjing Road, Shanghai's answer to Rodeo Drive _ but bigger.

A recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.