The clouds are back again. For three days though I had the feeling
Shanghai looked different. The sun was the perpetrator. Even the most
grey buildings seemed nice. Walking outside the streets in my area,
quilts and sheet were hanging in the street, forcing me to zigzag and
duck. Sitting next to it were the owners, watching the airing of their
quilts, guarding it for sheet thiefs and enjoying the sun themselves.
For me this is real city life. The blending of the ordinary with modern
high rises. The Public Sanitation Bureau
is less happy with such activities, afraid as they are that the image
of Shanghai as an International Metropolis will be tarnished. There is
even a regulation forbidding it, adopted in April 2002. The
Shanghainese don’t care, luckily, they continue to air.