Ports giants Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, Wharf Holdings and Singapore's PSA Corp Ltd are also jockeying for a piece of the action.
"In the past few years, development of Shanghai and Shenzhen ports has been very brisk. They will be a threat to Hong Kong in future because of their lower costs," said Wen Bin, an analyst at Merchants Securities in Shenzhen.
At least part of the city's ambition is driven by nostalgia for the past. Residents look back upon the 1920s and early 1930s as Shanghai's "shining era," never equaled since.
Shipping was the era's celebrated industry, and Shanghai was an artery for the silk and tea that flowed between the Orient and the West on full-masted junks and swollen clippers.
Now it wants to do the same, eventually, for everything from microchips to cars.
"There was so much happening back then with Americans and Europeans doing business here. We exported garments to places like Japan," Xin said, reminiscing. "That was a glorious era."
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