OurChinaTravels.com

Each day when I first wake I hear a multi-layered din that seems futuristic and Orwellian. First there is a low foundational rumbling from traffic and general urban activity. This is overlaid by a constant reverberating tone from one or more loudspeakers out on the street – some hawker advertising products or some paternalistic government drone intoning advice on how The People need to learn how to clean up their act (no spitting out on the street or in stores and office buildings, no cutting in line in the subway and in store check out lines) before Shanghai plays host during the World Expo in 2010. I realize that I actually have no idea whether it’s one or the other - or both. Then there’s constant honking from cars and a medley of sirens - police cars or ambulances probably, but certainly a variety of home-grown ones designed to warn and ward off other cars in the bumper-car activity that is Shanghai traffic.