SHANGHAI -- Shortly before speakers of German, English, French , and more descended on white-topped tables in the upscale restaurant that carries his name, David Laris, the Australian-born chef, said this:
``When you're in here, you could be anywhere. Then you're outside on the street, and you're in China. I don't think there's anywhere in the world you can see this much physical change."
For a traveler curious to venture into those streets, Shanghai today is at once overwhelming and approachable. Overwhelming as an immense historical and cultural place, the cosmopolitan hub of a nation that is home to one in five people on the planet. Approachable because the city at street level, particularly in its central districts, is best explored on foot.
Before heading out the door, though, it is worth going a floor lower in the Three on the Bund complex, to Whampoa Club . This restaurant is run by Jereme Leung , a Singaporean who reinvents classic Shanghai cooking in a dining room with Art Deco design .
Leung sat beside a dish of his creation: a tenderly grilled cod fillet topped with a jelly of crushed black pepper, chile, and lime.
``As you eat it," he said, ``the heat of the fish melts the sauce and it comes back to a real traditional Shanghainese fish dish."
Leung detailed the roots of the local cuisine: its high fat and salt content for laborers at the old port and in the streets, its staples of oil, sugar and soy sauce. Before his lessons from the old cooks of Shanghai, Leung ran celebrated restaurants throughout the Eastern Hemisphere, including Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. So it is also worth noting his observations about the city that sprawls around his newest showcase.
``Before Shanghai, I'd never come across a city that was developing at such a record speed," Leung said.
To thread through this place of change in only a few days, head away from the Bund, as most sites of interest lie west and south, in the part of Shanghai known as Puxi . For a taste of what was, stop in the Old City, and wander the remaining lane neighborhoods sprawling around the touristed bazaar of food and trinkets next to Yuyuan Gardens . Head west to the sidewalk tables at Xintiandi , and former Boston architect Ben Wood's take on what that old architecture should look like now. Continue on to the French Concession , where leafy avenues and cast-iron railings recall inspiration that came when Parisian politics and style defined this part of the city more than a century ago. Stroll Huaihai Road , where unique boutiques, galleries, and tailor shops abound, as do shops selling counterfeit fashions by Hugo Boss , Paul Smith , and others.
Hungry? Then stop by Bao Luo , a bustling hall of a restaurant filled with cold beer, tender duck, and the cadence of boisterous conversation in Shanghainese dialect. Or take a seat at a cramped table in Jishi and lean over plates of braised yellowfish with bean curd, or pots of salted pork and taro.
For more artistic expression, hop in a taxi and shoot north through the business district of Jingan toward the studios and galleries in the complex at 50 Moganshan Road . Artists there talk about painting and politics while tourists wander, then stop for an espresso at Travelled Coffee & Tea, adjacent.
Tired? You could repair to the French Concession and the quiet of the Donghu Hotel , where $90 gets a clean, comfortable room sealed from the crush of the city. Or live large, crossing Nanpu Bridge into the concrete boulevards of corporate Pudong . There waits a Hyatt, said to be the highest hotel in the world. Lay your weary head on the soft pillow in room 7205. That's right, the 72 d floor.
There are higher rooms, and a bar at the top, on floor 87. But 7205 is plenty high, because from here you can stare down onto the rooftops of Shanghai. You can trace the arc of the Huangpu River and its barreling barges. You can see the endless run of towers toward the west. Until the clouds come in. Then the city dissolves.
Contact Tom Haines at thaines@globe.com. 
