I grew up in Beijing and went to college in Beijing, and I had never lived in other cities in China until I came to US. My in-laws are from Shanghai, and they told me Shanghai was better than Bejing in many ways, until I went to Shanghai when I was 23. At that time Shanghai was at least 20 years behind Beijing, and the girls there have to make clothes for themselves as they can't afford to buy the expensive ones in stores like people in Beijing; the bumpy brick road can not be compared with the wide and straight road in Beijing, the stinky river in Shanghai made me having hard time to breath. For whatever reason Shanghai was not as glorious as the in-laws described, I felt those people want to make up stuff and try to impress others.
After living in US for 20 years, besides the in-laws, I have got to know a lot of people from Shanghai. There are some gentlemen and ladies from Shanghai, but I have met some really typical ones, they are fussy, picky, and fake. The men are like women, they are so particular on little things and can't forgive others, also like to show off.