SHANGHAI, China: At first sight, the global economic slowdown seems to have had little impact in Shanghai, China's brash financial capital. A 10-minute walk through the streets of the city's financial district is guaranteed to leave shoes coated in dust from the many construction sites, where migrant workers from the country's interior work on building the latest apartment building or shopping mall, occasionally stopping to stare unashamedly at a passing foreigner. In the five-star hotels near the city's famous Bund riverfront district, foreign and Chinese businessmen still strike deals and plan for what until recently seemed to be a future of almost-guaranteed expansion.

One of the most striking changes to have...