Shanghai Rising

Benjamin Wood swings his bulky frame over the saddle, straps on his helmet, and settles onto a vintage motorcycle with sidecar. The American architect kicks the engine into life with a single thrust and pulls into the rush-hour traffic coursing through Shanghai's trendy Xintiandi district. He soon steers down a narrow street and enters another world. While Xintiandi is all luxury shops and outdoor cafés, in surrounding neighborhoods the sidewalks are full of people playing mah-jongg in their pajamas, washing dishes at outdoor taps, or popping dumplings into bubbling oil. Life goes on much as it has for the past half-century.

As the bike gathers speed, Wood's white silk jacket flaps in the wind. Passing between some of the fast-disappearing courtyard houses of Shanghai, he waves at locals making dinner. "They know me pretty well in this neighborhood, because I like to ride through here a lot," he says, raising his voice to be heard over the growling motor. "What they don't know," he adds with a hint of regret, "is that I'm also the guy who is going to make this way of life disappear."