Shanghai and Hong Kong have developed simultaneously and the pattern of development shared a lot of similarities. The stories of the two coastal cities began more than one hundred years ago. Magnificent architecture appeared along the coast and the building clusters later developed into the Bund in Shanghai and City of Victoria in Hong Kong. In the two cities, the foreign interacted with the local, the traditional merged with the modern, and the new fused with the old to form a unique cosmopolitan lifestyle. This exhibition set out to illustrate how Shanghai and Hong Kong pioneered China's modernisation, as well as depicted the two cities' open, innovative, diversified and commercial way of life through clothing, food, living environment, transportation and culture and entertainment. A collaborative effort between Hong Kong Museum of History and Shanghai History Museum, the exhibition presented some 240 sets of exhibits from Shanghai and Hong Kong, including the metal plaque marking the border of the Shanghai International Settlement, a rickshaw before 1949, a pictorial album with actress Lily Yuen's autograph, a signage for the old Shanghai Race Club, costumes from the early 20th Century, monthly calendars and artefacts of the four major department stores. Please join us in revisiting the cities' social pasts – a cosmopolitan way of life that was prosperous, colourful and in touch with world trends.