CHINA. Shanghai, 1996. After hearing that the Japenese company Yaohan had opened the largest department store in Shanghai in the Pudong area, I visited the store but found it not very crowded. The New World Department Store at the intersection of Nanjing Road and Xizang Road, by contrast, was surprisingly busy. Until just a few years ago, even the citizens of Shanghai, proud as they are, could not have imagined the emergence of such large department stores.