We're getting our first snow in Shanghai today.
It's not much — it's melting as it hits the ground — but it's definitely snowing rather than raining. Snow in Shanghai in the middle of November is really not supposed to happen. It's all part of a weather system coming straight from Siberia that has been bring lower than normal temperatures and earlier than normal snowfalls to much of China since the day we left Beijing (last Monday).
We're heading off tomorrow morning for a weekend in Hangzhou, returning on Monday. We're going by train, so that's another first. And we're going to try to tour Hangzhou without any guides (other than the printed kind), so that's yet another first. We'll need as much help as we can get from the weather gods. The forecast looks like things might be pretty bad on Friday, but may well improve by Sunday, or even by Saturday.
President Obama has now left China for South Korea on his Asian tour.
Coverage in the official Chinese media during Obama's time in Beijing has been subdued — to say the least. I would speculate that, for the average Chinese Joe, it's pretty much as if Obama were never there. There was nothing like the Town Hall Meeting for young Chinese students that was held here in Shanghai (and even that wasn't carried on official Chinese media). There was a press conference held after the talks in Beijing. The format was very, very formal. Hu Jintao and Obama both stood woodenly at their respective lecterns. Both spoke in the halting way one must do to accomodate simultaneous translation. Neither took questions from reporters. Reading between the lines, it appears that China's leaders are really anxious to avoid spotlighting the contrast between Obama's charisma and their own lack of it. Anyone who might have thought that China would take this opportunity to open up will simply have to nurse their disappointment.
Not much else to report, other than that I've started another composition. I've got a good start, but it's at the "needs more percolation stage." I'll get back to it when we've returned from Hangzhou.
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