Where Have All The Commies Gone?

9:06pm Shanghai time and I'm once again sitting in my hotel room, tired as hell, sipping on a Tsingtao. The only way I made it through today was to down four cups of extra strong java at work.

Miserable weather here. Rained all day with a thick overcast and very low ceiling. A woman at work explained that it was the "rainy season". I asked if that meant it rained every day. "It could," she replied. Great. Just great.

As I mentioned yesterday, the journey over here was not a picnic. Sitting in Northwest's World Business Class helped make it tolerable. Fully reclinable seats, lumbar massage, and a personal entertainment system were nice features, but a twelve hour flight is a twelve hour flight, no matter how comfortable you make it. I read quite a bit more of Reagan's autobiography An American Life, played trivia on the entertainment system, took a page from Mr. Lileks by watching MST3K DVDs (Boggy Creek II:The Legend Continues and Merlin's Shop Of Mystical Wonders) on my laptop, and took as much advantage of the free booze as I dared within reason.

So far I have not been able to see much of the city. We arrived last night after dark and the offices here are only a few miles from the hotel. One thing that has struck me is how normal everything appears. China is the first communist country that I have ever visited, not counting Canada, and frankly I'm a little disappointed. I was ready to be greeted at the airport by stern faced Red Guards waving Kalashnikovs and demanding to see my papers. Instead I was greeted by excited drivers waving signs representing hotels and businesses and looking to deliver us to our destinations. It was easier to enter China than Mexico.

And the huge iconic images of Mao, the banners decrying running dog capitalism, and red flags on every street corner? Nowhere to be seen. In fact the whole time I've been here I've only seen one Chinese flag. Granted I'm staying in Pudong, a business orientated part of the city designed to show China's best face to the world, but still can't they put on a little show for us newcomers to the land? Besides in some ways this facade of normalcy is actually more disturbing than the visible signs of state authority that were present in the past. You have to wonder what's really going on behind the curtain.