A shimmering necklace

23 degrees here in Scotland yesterday. The same temperatures forecast for today. That's warmer than it was in Shanghai. The garden is parched. Rain is forecast on Sunday. It will be welcomed by the local farmers. The farm track is so dry that clouds of fine dust drift into the sky whenever a van or tractor drives along it.

The reason for going all the way to Shanghai was to see The Bund. A collection of stunning 1920's era buildings that stretch for a mile or so along one bank of the river. They miraculously survived the traumas of the 30's and 40's largely undamaged. At night they are floodlit and shimmer like a mile long strand of limestone coloured pearls. Even the most jaded of travellers would have to say it is a truly wonderful sight. We find ourselves standing for twenty or thirty minutes just soaking it all in. It's a long time since anything ot anywhere was awesome enough to make us do that. At night tens of thousands of teenage TikTokers capture the scene for posterity. For the Chinese May Day holiday the place attracts millions.

On the other side of the river from our hotel the brightly lit spires of the new business district - an Asian Manhattan. A professor from the university says that in the early 90's half of the worlds entire output of cement was used in building the new city . This seems excessive but who am I to judge ? If you add in the huge new airport and the motorways and railway arches then there might be a kernel of truth in the statement.

The view at night is indeed bucket list worthy. Shanghai is built on a working river and to our surprise barges, sightseeing boats and tankers ( and a couple of destroyers ) plough back and forwards day and night.

During the day it's also pretty impressive.

Foreigners tend to go on 'western' style night cruises or have private trips arranged by their hotels. We took a Chinese one. The party animals on our boat were avid consumers of neat alcohol. The presence of Europeans on our cruise with Chinese characteristics was clearly unusual. People would come onto the deck and stare at us. This slightly unnerving response also happened to us on a station platform in Udaipur. 

Book reviews :https://www.millersbookreview.com/p/who-killed-the-book-review-newspaper-book-coverage-is-dying-but-dont-hold-a-funeral-for-literary-culture

Most amazing thing I've read all year :https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2045064737478848687

A story about Starbucks :https://substack.com/home/post/p-195863299

On order . The old one has worn out :https://store.anatomica.jp/en/products/single-raglan-coat-1-gabardine-navy