Urban planning

You may have noticed that construction is a recurring theme of these blogs. It is all pervasive in Shanghai. Building is going on everywhere from soaring tower blocks to small hole in the wall dumpling stalls. The noise created by these works (let's not even think about the pollution) creates a constant background orchestral accompaniement to the city right around the clock. The government, taking pity on its beleagured residents, has decreed that all construction other than on the most important of municipal projects, must cease between the hours of 10pm and 6am in the run up to the public university entrance exams in order to give the candidates a good night's sleep. During the days of the exams themselves, no construction whatsoever is allowed.

The city will also grind to a halt from 14-16 June. A big-wig conference is being held in town and various roads will be closed to allow the cavalcades through. Everyone is 'encouraged' to take a holiday but the pay-off is that they are supposed to work the weekend before. In order to help ensure co-operation, air conditioning is being turned off in the offices.

Working hours here are very flexible. On returning home from a Saturday night out at midnight, we came across a slightly sinister, lone figure in our lane wearing large earphones, a luminous striped jacket and a battery pack and swinging what looked like an oversized iron sink plug which was periodically rested on the ground, along the pavement . "What in the world are you doing?" we asked the man. With a remarkably cheerful smile (he was probably glad to catch a glimpse of a fellow human being), the man told us he was checking the underground water pipes for leaks. Quite why this activity had to take place at midnight on a Saturday was something we didn't have the energy to get to the bottom of.