Just a quick note to let you know we have made it successfully from Xi'an to Shanghai, and have well and truly landed on our feet again. Out hosts Fang and Bin have given us a pretty central apartment of our own from which to explore until Nic arrives on Saturday, and they are both great people with whome we are to go touring the city tomorrow night. We only arrived this lunch time so I have not seen much, but it has a unique flavour here - much more cosmopolitan that Beijing or Xi'an, probably thanks to its British and French history.
I certainly know the true meaning of "to be Shanghai'ed" though: it was not to be slipped a mickey finn and wake up between a pair of oars getting sea-sick, that was just the excuse given. I think the real meaning was to come here, take one look, and never want to leave! I am so overjoyed to be here in China and especially Shanghai that I think the last 2 weeks have been the most amazing of my life. I cannot say why, it is dirty, smelly, jostly, loud and some times excluding, but it just fits right. The people here are so kind, robust, and with a high lust for life that it kind of sweeps you away...