Yes, I'm finally back in China after more than four years. It's a bit strange, the same but very different.
I took the China Eastern night flight, from Denpasar to Shanghai. A very sparse flight, a selection of sad Russian refugees (moving to the next place they can), some wealthy Chinese, and me. In Shanghai the airport was almost empty. Very strange, only a few international flights arriving. Coco (my wife and AW China agent) needed to be in Shanghai to apply for her Schengen visa so we arranged to meet at the hotel.

Last week I was in Bali, and we had the local priest come to perform a blessings ceremony for the latest AW start-up. Something strange happened.. if you missed it you can catch up here.

Shanghai is full of flashy high-rise hotels, but I choice to stay in a slightly odd boutique hotel in the heart of the French quarter. Moller Villa was built by an eccentric Englishman to a fantasy design provided by his small daughter. The shipping magnets home was commandeered by the communist party and later converted to a hotel, everything has been preserved including the serving of a pretty dreadful English Breakfast.

But we love the area, Julu Road is nearby and leads deep into the French Quarter. Here are trendy gift shops, hip coffee places, cool vintage clothes stores.. the bright young things of Shanghai open small businesses in the dappled leafy streets. Massive high rise office blocks house the financial elite and there is a lot of wealthy clientele to support the small businesses.. Shanghai has always been the most cosmopolitan city in China, the most stylish and the most westernised.. In this area the old and the new mix, the local old folk and the young incomers, and before west and east.. there used to be a lot of foreigners.. but now hardly any. We ate in packed western style restaurants where I was the only westerner. I have to say I was made super welcome, and many locals want to chat or just say hello.

The creative buzz is still alive.. and some things have improved, the sky is blue, birds sing in the trees, the traffic is mostly electric (or supercars) so the roads are whisper quiet.. Springtime in Paris they say is beautiful, but Springtime in Shanghai is special. But something is missing... the foreigners. And you can sense the locals are slightly on edge, it's not normal.
Eric Moller completed his lavish home in the 1930's it was a time of massive change.. the Japanese invaded, the second world war, and the upheaval that followed..

We took the fast train from the humongous Hongqiao Station, so vast it boggles the mind.. the only foreigners I noticed were on the same train as us.. going to Yiwu. Home to the world's biggest small commodity wholesale market.
I'll tell you more about that next week...

I hope you have a peaceful and gentle weekend.

Take care.

David