Shanghai lies in central-eastern China, exposed to the East China Sea. It is divided into two areas: Pudong (east of the Huangpu River) and Puxi (west of the Huangpu River). Shanghai has an intense colonial past and this legacy gives it a dramatic character, visible in the very facades of its buildings. Not only is the city a museum of East meeting West on Chinese soil but Shanghai has become one of the world's great modern capitals, the one city that best shows where China is headed at the dawn of the 21st century.