Elaborate steel-and-glass skyscrapers, tinted blue, silver, green or gold, jut 40 to 60 stories skyward along the highway from the airport.

Wooden dhows, the single-masted boats based on centuries-old Arab design, float past the Rolex Towers and National Bank of Dubai's curved facade, shimmering gold-like in the bright sunlight.

Helicopters flutter onto a landing pad overhanging the 28th floor of the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel. With its billowing-boat-sail design that has become this city's icon, the hotel soars 1,000 feet over a man-made island in the Persian Gulf.

Dubai -- future home to Halliburton Energy Services, one of America's best known, most controversial corporations -- is more than just a rich Arab kingdom.

And it is scrambling to surpass other Western cities -- with greater opulence, flashier architecture, more corporate giants, and more spectacular sports and consumer attractions.

Dubai is the second-largest of seven emirates, or kingdoms, on the horn of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the most populous, thanks to its main city of 1.3 million people. The population includes about 100,000 Western expatriates and a burgeoning majority of immigrant laborers, mostly from South and Southeast Asia. Native Emiratis are in the minority.

It emerged as an international commercial force after building the world's largest manmade harbor in the 1970s. Today, its focus is media, computer, biomedical, genetic research and other high-tech firms, as well as global giants such as Halliburton.

Around its main marina, a mammoth construction zone of cranes and rapid-rising office and residential towers dominates. Crews work 24 hours, as floodlights blaze in the night.

On the 10-lane Sheikh Zayed Road, the same frenetic pace surrounds what may become the world's tallest building. Burj Al Dubai, its base shaped like a spider lily's petals, already soars to 110 stories. When it's completed as planned, 160 stories will close in on 3,000 feet.

The massive complex -- to include an artificial lake and a mall billed as the world's biggest -- rises behind billboards boasting "Downtown at the Burj Al Dubai: The Most Prestigious Kilometers on the Planet."

"Dubai is phenomenal," says Lebanese expat Samer Hamadeh, 26, a managing partner in Chillout Productions. The company produces concerts and other performances here, such as last weekend's International Jazz Festival.

"Dubai is like living in Miami Beach or Hong Kong while it is getting built. Instead of it getting built over decades, it is getting built over ten years. In reality, you are witnessing a great city being built -- and not many get to see that in their lifetime."

With a world-class port, colossal duty-free malls, lavish beachfront hotels, luxurious desert retreats and extravagant dining over stunning views from the ubiquitous towers, the tiny emirate reportedly attracts more tourists than India. Its liberal tax and investment laws attract international companies.

"It is easier for us to conduct business, which is why it is very attractive for all the big multinationals to come and open up here," Hamadeh says. "You can get anything done in absolutely no time."

Such kinetic energy -- plus proximity to Mideast oil that is at Halliburton's core -- prompted the Houston-based energy giant to relocate its chairman here. He may feel right at home.

While Minnesota's Mall of America has its famous indoor roller coaster, Dubai's Mall of the Emirates boasts something Minnesota has in abundance: snow.

Ski Dubai is one of the mall's main attractions. Through glass windows on two floors, shoppers gawk as Emiratis and foreigners, bundled-up in heated down jackets, ski or snowboard on nearly 250,000 square feet of artificial snow.

The longest of five ski runs is 1,300 feet. A snow park offers a twin-bobsled ride, a snow cavern, a snowball-throwing gallery, a 12-foot ice dragon bathed in pink light, and penguin, seal and polar bear ice sculptures. "You must wear boots," says Ahmed, a Ski Dubai worker. "We want to keep the snow white."

Emirati women, wearing sequin- and rhinestone-studded black veils and ankle-length black gowns under their rented winter-wear, pull helmeted children on purple sleds.

"I do snowboarding," says diminutive Halima Hafez, 21, while issuing Snow Park tickets. She loves it even though "it's not a long slope."

Critics predicted the mall would be empty when finished. Yet at 3 p.m. on a Saturday, it is packed with Emiratis, Europeans, Southeast Asians, Arabs and Americans checking the latest fashions at DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Emporio Armani or Escada boutiques. Shopping seems to be a favorite activity here.

Two years ago, the monthlong Dubai Shopping Festival attracted 3.3 million visitors. Now, it extends to 45 days to accommodate the crowds. A local mobile phone company's ads portray a happy Emirati family declaring: "Celebrate the joy of togetherness. Celebrate Shopping!" The city's non-stop construction is juxtaposed with its extravagance and luxury.

On the 51st floor of the Emirates Tower, well-heeled visitors peer at new and rising skyscrapers at Vu's Bar. One patron, a retired American real-estate developer, talks about Burj Al Arab's $1,500-a-night standard suite. Guests can rent one of the Burj's Rolls Royces and be chauffeured for more stylish travel, he says.

Reservations at the Burj's Sky View Bar are booked 10 days in advance. The bar mixes drinks and meals with a bird's-eye view of Dubai Waterfront, a development that is seven times the size of Manhattan.