Fuelled by the car manufacturing boom of the last decade, Detroit is a city bouncing back from its backward image with thriving arts, music and culture scenes.

Once thought of as a dark and depressing industrial town, the ‘Motor City' is reinventing itself with relaxing parks, hot nightclubs and a regenerated downtown district.

Music has always been at the heart of Detroit. This is the city where Motown was born, with artists like Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson all cutting records here. More recently, Eminem emerged from the infamous 8 Mile trailer park to become a global superstar, while techno music keeps the clubs jumping well into the morning.  

The residents who fled to the suburbs during the civil unrest of the 1960s are slowly returning to Downtown Detroit. Here they can enjoy the vibrancy of Greektown's bars and restaurants, pleasant strolls along Detroit River and ice hockey or baseball at Detroit's two new sport stadiums.

With all this development, it's important to Detroiters not to lose a sense of their history. It is after all the oldest city in the Midwest, and already a national centre for African-American history.

Whatever the future may hold for Detroit, it still represents the best of the American dream: Dreams made, dreams lost and dreams built again.