Long queues formed outside the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall last week as people turned out to visit the annual exhibition of the city’s development, a key driver of the last 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

In the queue was one family spanning three generations that somehow typified China’s transformation — the older people who remember the hard times of the past, middle-aged people who lived through the winds of change and young people who have new horizons of opportunities ahead of them.

Shanghai has indeed been at the forefront of a remarkable transformation. Its economic data tell the story.