It turned out to be a fun first weekend in Shanghai. Nicki and Henning both made it down from Beijing, I got in by train from Xian, and we met up with our "locals", notorious antifluxor Andrew and my cousin Rob who is teaching English there. Maoming Lu is a street of bars that attracts foreigners of all stripes. It's a weird crowd; career expats who are very settled in the local scene and its available services (Andrew likes the term "sexpats"), many touristy-looking people like me who don't know what's going on, and the a fair number of young professionals who have found themselves in this city with its tradition of flair and vice.

Rob introduced me to the street food near his house. These are little stalls or just carts where people are cooking various kinds of food, mostly involving a lot of oil and frying. There are some tasty items and you can fill yourself for under a dollar, but something I ate did not go over so well on the second day.